Old Dogs, New Tricks
by yuugiri
Summary: After an unprecedented turn of events, the Fifth Hokage has officially assigned Sakura Haruno the responsibility to make Sai recover what he had lost; his emotions. With a time limit of a month, will Sakura succeed in this mission?
1. Chapter 1: Tact

_**My very first Naruto Shippuden Fic. Though some pairings are emphasized in the story, it is mainly a SaixSakura fanfiction. I just realized I like them together. XD**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuden. None of the characters I used here are mine.**_

* * *

The wedding was going to be held in a week in the Hidden Village of the Sand. While it was customary for weddings to take place in the village of the groom, Shikamaru had decided that it would be easier for Temari to have the preparations for it within her own territory. If one would look at it from someone who did not know Shikamaru, one would think he was being a gentleman. But Sakura Haruno could see through her friend's plan: it was most likely one of the guy's way of weaseling away from more responsibility, which he seemed to be quite allergic to.

Sakura sighed as she made her way out of the cave where she had taken shelter from the sandstorm that had decided to hinder her travel the night before. The Village Hidden in the Sand was a good three days away from the Leaf, two if you were lucky. But traveling alone had proven to make it seem much, much longer.

She had been away from the Village on an errand for the Lady Hokage, and Sai had hurried on ahead to the Sand along with the other teams for the upcoming ceremony. Naruto, who had been away for almost a month now training with the old Frog Sage in Myobokuzan, said he would catch up a few days later, hoping to make it just in time for the wedding. And because of this, Sakura was traveling all by her lonesome.

She smiled at the thought of Shikamaru and Temari finally trying the knot. It was kind of unexpected to learn that the my-pace Chuunin was going to be the first to marry in their batch, especially since everyone knew that he undeniably thought that women were lame, scary and very, very troublesome. But beside this fact, she kind of saw it coming; ever since Temari had taken up the role as Ambassador from the Sand Village, Shikamaru had nearly been glued to her side every time she came for a visit, all the while complaining that it was a "drag".

Marriages weren't usually given this much importance, but it was going to be the very first intermarriage between the Sand and the Leaf since the peace treaty. Both the Lady Tsunade and the young Kazekage, Gaara were looking forward to such a joining, be there purposes other than diplomacy. More to that, Temari was the Kazekage's older sister, and Gaara may not admit it loudly, but the guy seemed to be quite unconsciously attached to her.

Sakura adjusted her boots quickly, straightened, then took off into a run. Last night's sandstorm had already made her lose too much time. Not that she was in a hurry, but she was tired and it had been quite a while since she had seen Temari and her brothers.

In less than an hour, she finally saw the mountain pass leading to the entrance of the Hidden Village looming over the horizon and instantly hastened her pace, excitement building up at the thought of the reunion. Much to her surprise, aside from the boarder guards on duty on the walls of the pass, three very familiar people were waiting for her by the foot of the path. Kankurou, as always dark and brooding, Shikamaru, looking really bored, and her squad captain, Yamato looking absolutely hassled. None of them looked happy.

Sakura skidded to a stop in front of her Captain. "Something tells me something really bad happened while I wasn't here. Lady Tsunade didn't give me any briefing, nor orders to hurry… Should I have come sooner?"

Kankurou, right now dressed in a dark tunic, and somehow looking less menacing without his face painted, had his long bulky arms crossed over his chest. And for a reason Sakura could only dread, the Sand ninja had a patch of hair missing from the left side of his head, as if someone had shaved it off.

Sakura stared at his head. "You do know you have a bald spot on your – "

Kankurou cut her off. "I know it might seem rude to tell you this, since you just got here, but I think your teammate just ruined what could have been one of the greatest milestones the Leaf and the Sand could ever have had."

Sakura, quite confused, winced uncomfortably, feeling sweat beading her brow, which she knew had nothing to do with the heat. "I thought Naruto wouldn't be coming this soon…? What did the idiot do now?"

Shikamaru, who was wearing a white tunic which looked like it had been burned at some places, started to dig his pinky finger into his ear. "Naruto didn't do anything, because he isn't here yet. Kankurou was talking about your _other_ teammate."

"Sai?"

Captain Yamato nodded gravely, those creepy almond-shaped eyes rimmed dark with exhaustion as if he hadn't had a good night's sleep. "Let's just say that his… err… _innocence_… has finally gotten him into more trouble that what it's worth."

"More like ignorance," she heard Kankurou mutter under his breath.

That was enough said. Sakura knew that Sai, much as she had grown to accept his very rare handicap, was lacking a lot in the tact department. But she could not believe he was capable of aggravating others to the point of anger. Discomfort, yes. But anger?

"Where is he?" she asked.

Shikamaru finally finished his ear excavation and blew at his pinky finger. "In jail," he said off-handedly.

Sakura blinked. _"What?"_ she snapped. She turned to her squad captain. "What _exactly _did he do?"

Captain Yamato rubbed his eyes tiredly. "It's a long story, and I'm glad I'm not entitled to tell it to you. The Fifth wants me on my way back to the village the moment you arrive."

"So you mean you're _running away_?" Sakura asked incredulously.

Captain Yamato raised his hands between them, as if to fend her off. "Now, now. Don't put it that way. I'm not _running away_. I have orders to follow here, Sakura. You know how the Lady Tsunade is…" He gave a nervous laugh. "Shikamaru will brief you on what's happened. I'll have to stock up on supplies for the road so I'll be here for a while if you still need me." He made a move as if to run, but stopped and turned to Sakura again. "I almost forgot. The Sand Medic Ninja are taking care of everything, but if they need any help with the injured, give them a hand, all right?"

With this, Sakura's eyes widened. "Injured? _Injured!_ What – "

It was Shikamaru's turn to cut her off. "Walk with me. I'll explain along the way." With that, he started his leisurely pace down the pass, hiking his tunic up to stuff his hands in his pockets.

Sakura gave Kankurou an unsure look.

In return, the Sand ninja nodded. "You know that if it were up to me, I'd let you rest a bit, Sakura. But I think you should go ahead and have a look at what happened."

"Your head… " Sakura started.

Kankurou rubbed his bald spot. "It's fine. I could always wear a hat… " he mumbled.

Uncertainly, she gave Kankurou a weary look, then hurried after Shikamaru though the pass.

"Shouldn't I attend to the injured first before anything else?" she asked, finally catching up with the Chuunin.

"Trust me, you'd want to see Sai first."

Sakura frowned. "Tell me what he did, already. You're making me nervous."

Shikamaru gave her a side-long glance. "He… _insulted _Temari."

Sakura blinked several times, trying hard to digest what Shikamaru just said, and waited for him to elaborate. When he did not, she asked, "He insulted Temari and got thrown in jail?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Today was supposed to be dress rehearsals for the ceremony, as you can see." He gestured at his very forlorn tunic. "Everyone had gathered in the Kazekage Tower for it when Sai handed his advanced Wedding Gift." Shikamaru shrugged uncomfortably. "It was a painting."

Sakura felt sick. "Of what, I dare ask?"

"A disturbingly fat Temari in a wedding dress. The resemblance was uncanny."

Sakura gasped. "He didn't!"

Shikamaru rubbed his forehead tiredly. "He did, the idiot. The Fifth will tan his hide with his own ink when she finds out about this."

Sakura bit her lip, somehow feeling guilty for what she had to say. "Master Tsunade doesn't have to know about a petty little fight like that…" she gulped. "Does she?"

"I'm afraid she _has _to be informed about this."

"Why?"

Shikamaru stopped walking and gestured with his hands to what was in front of them. "See for yourself."

Sakura hesitantly turned her head to what Shikamaru was referring to.

And her hands flew to her mouth in utmost disbelief. Where the Kazekage tower stood before was tons and tons of sand and stone. The surrounding buildings were left untouched, or so she thought, until she saw the roofs, which were cleanly sliced off from the walls. "What in the Will of Fire's name happened here?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Temari happened. With the painting shown to her, reinforced by Sai's _constructive criticism_, she no sooner had her fan out and was blasting wind strikes everywhere in desperate attempt to obliterate Sai. Hinata and the rest were there, thank heavens, and saved most of the civilians from harm, but the people within the perimeter had their roofs torn over their heads and some children suffered minor injuries. Scratches and such."

"Oh, no!"

"That's not the worst part. You want to hear the rest?"

Sakura covered her eyes in resignation. "No, but tell me anyway."

"The Kazekage was on the topmost floor of the tower when it happened and had it not been for his Sand Jutsu, he would have been buried in the rubble. I could say the least for his office. Half of the important scrolls in it were torn into shreds with Temari's attacks."

Sakura felt faint. "Where's Temari?"

"In a cell, adjacent to Sai," Shikamaru said, somewhat a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Within a week of her wedding day? Shikamaru, and you allowed that?"

"The Kazekage's orders, only until she calms down." He turned to Sakura with a weird look. "You women, is vanity that much a big deal to you?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. Shikamaru nearly shrank.

"I'll take you to Sai. Everyone's there, too."

* * *

Three days later, Sakura found herself in front of the Fifth with Sai and Captain Yamato on either side of her.

Lady Tsunade was not looking at any of them, but was drumming her fingers rapidly on her desk, reading a piece of parchment with Gaara's crooked handwriting. Ten minutes, twenty minutes passed. The office was silent except for the Fifth's long red-painted fingernails on hard wood.

Sakura looked at Sai who was standing on her left. The boy's face, as expected was placid and unreadable. He was still wearing his ANBU uniform, and except for the few cuts and bruises on his cheeks and exposed abdomen which Sakura decided not to heal for his own good, he did not seem rattled at all at what he had just done.

"So here are the facts," Lady Tsunade suddenly said, making Sakura jump. The Fifth had stopped her finger-drumming. "The Kazekage has assured that nothing was taken personally, but has asked us to at least provide financial aid for the rebuilding of his tower." Her sharp brown eyes turned to the squad captain. "I am assigning you to head the rebuilding, Yamato. And I am expecting it done as fast as humanly possible."

"Understood," Yamato replied.

"Because of this unprecedented turn of events, the wedding has been postponed until everything within the Sand is stabilized. That will take two months, at the very least." She shook her head in displeasure. "If it had just been the office, everything would have been done in a snap. But those scrolls…" Lady Tsunade seemed lost in thought. After a few minutes of muttering to herself, she blinked, looked at Yamato and frowned. "Why are you still here?"

Yamato was taken aback. "Excuse me." And with a quick hand sign, he disappeared in a whirl of smoke.

When the captain was gone, the Hokage resumed her drumming, and was once again looking at the parchment.

Sakura felt sweat trickling down her back. She knew that habit of her master, remaining silent before exploding. It was like the silence right before a squall.

But much to her surprise, Tsunade merely sighed in exasperation. She looked at the former ROOT member. "Sai."

Sai blinked, his eyes that had been focused on the window behind the Hokage turned obediently to the woman speaking to him. "Yes, ma'am."

"You gave Temari of the Sand, betrothed to Shikamaru Nara a… self portrait, yes?"

"Undeniable, Lady Hokage," Sai said calmly. "I have it with me, if you want to see. Miss Temari threw it at me before she sent me wind barrages, which I dodged with my life."

Tsunade eyes the boy in disbelief. "Give it here, then."

Sai took his time in taking the said object from his backpack. The offensive painting was kept safe in a brown paper bag. Sakura eyed it curiously. Sai took a step towards Tsunade and placed the paper bag on her desk.

Tsunade glanced at it once, then stared at Sai again, who returned to his place beside Sakura. She studied the boy intensely. Nobody but Sai could have withstood that look.

"I know what you've been through, Sai. I know all about the training you've undergone to erase your emotions." She pressed her knuckles to her lips. "Yes, I know all about it."

Sai tilted his head to the side. "What have I done wrong?"

Tsunade tapped the paper bag with one finger. "This gift. Tell me what your purpose was in giving it to the bride."

With this said, Sai once again started rummaging through his backpack. Sakura almost groaned when she saw him take out a book entitled _"Sense of Humor"._

"I read in this book that – "

Tsunade raised her hand at him, frustrated. "You know what, forget I asked. I'm sure you meant well." She leaned back on her chair, took at deep breath and sighed. "The provocation you did on Temari of the Sand was uncalled for, however different your motives were. Luckily, the Kazekage is not a rash person. Had it been a different Hidden Village, it could possibly have started a war. You were in a foreign Village, and you provoke their kunoichi, endangering the locals as well as the Kazekage himself, destroying property worth more than we can afford at the moment. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Sai looked bewildered. "I don't think I've read that part of the book yet…"

This made Sakura groan along with the Fifth.

Tsunade tried to brush Sai's comment as if it were an annoying fly. "Sai, you are no longer a member of ROOT. Sometimes, emotions do get in the way of a mission, but now that you are working directly under me, I am ordering you to take control of them. As you have witnessed in this predicament, one tiny word, one miscalculated move, and it could lead to trouble far more than you are willing to bear."

Sai merely blinked.

Tsunade stared at the boy. Sai stared back.

In obvious annoyance, Tsunade turned to Sakura, who jumped a step back as if she knew what she was going to say next. "Sakura Haruno! I am giving you the responsibility of your teammate, Sai! You are to teach him what he has been trained to forget, and I am expecting progress in a month's time. Do you understand?"

Sakura felt dizzy. She looked from the Lady Hokage to Sai, then back again. She gave a salute. "Understood, ma'am."

Tsunade let a relieved sigh. "Good. You are dismissed." She waved her hand and watched as the two of them exited the door.

Once alone with Sai, Sakura turned to her teammate, completely unsure of what to say.

Sai was looking at the closed door of the Hokage's office. "The book said that poking fun of each other is a sign of affection between friends. I had wanted to be her friend…"

Sakura looked up at Sai, eyebrows crunched up as she examined his scratched face. "I guess I have a lot of work to do with you yet." She grabbed Sai's face roughly with both hands, making him look her in the eye. He looked startled but closed his eyes drowsily when she started to treat his wounds.

In the middle of the process, both of them jumped when they heard the Fifth suddenly burst out laughing from behind the door.

_"… Oh, my! This is rich! Shizune! Hurry and come take a look at this!" _

It was obvious she decided to take a peek at what Sai had drawn, and unlike Temari, she seemed have liked what she saw.

* * *

_**I don't know what drew me to this pairing. Although Sai's character isn't developed much in the series, I found his childlike innocence strangely appealing, and the way he seems to have nice chemistry with Sakura just fueled my inspiration on writing a fic about them. **_

_**Reviews are loved, by the way. XD **_


	2. Chapter 2: Regret

Sakura abruptly woke up sometime near midnight feeling very, very tired. She could still hear her Master's words ringing in her ears.

_"Sakura Haruno! I am giving you the responsibility of your teammate, Sai! You are to teach him what he has been trained to forget, and I am expecting progress in a month's time. Do you understand?"_

Shoving the blankets off her groggily, she rubbed her eyes sleepily and was considering on getting a glass of water when she heard a strange sound coming from her balcony. Frowning, she pulled the curtains open and nearly screamed bloody murder when she saw Sai's face pressed against the glass. He tapped the window with a finger, then pointed at the lock.

Thinking that this was a bad dream, she slapped her face once, winced at the disappointment that it was not, and opened the window. "Sai?"

"Good morning," said the former ROOT member, hopped into her room uninvited, and sat beside her on the bed.

Sakura unceremoniously knocked him to the floor. "What the heck do you think you're doing?"

"I was hoping we could start on your mission early." Sai clambered into a sitting position on the floor, not showing the least bit shame that he was disturbing her beauty sleep.

Sakura stared down at him as if he were something gross stuck on her shoe. The boy merely stared back, and after a moment flashed her a winning smile. Groaning inwardly, Sakura looked at the clock on her side table. Twelve-fifteen. Great. What a perfect way to start the day.

"Sai, I don't know how to say this politely, but can we please do this in, say, eight hours' time? Just like normal people do?"

Sai looked at her, clueless. "What's wrong with right now?"

Sakura took a deep breath, willing the anger to melt away. Too tired and too sleepy to even argue any further, she closed the window and sat on her bed in resignation. "Fine. How do you propose we start this then?"

Sai, who apparently had brought along with him his backpack right now close to bursting, started taking out book after book after book and neatly stacking them on the foot of Sakura's bed. _The Mystery of the Human Mind, Listen to What She Isn't Saying, The Birds and the Bees…? _

"I took these out of the library right after we were dismissed and I thought of – "

Sakura stopped him from taking out any more. Yawning loudly, she shook her head. "That's where we start, Sai. You will not open those books of yours for a whole month. You will return these to the library at first light and you will not borrow anything that concerns things you have been diligently researching ever since you became my teammate. Understood?"

It was obviously _not _understood. "Why?" he asked.

"It's because we can't learn emotions from a book, Sai. People just don't work that way. Emotions are imprinted in the brain, things that we learn when we're little, like pain, sadness, happiness, jealousy." She shifted her legs and scratched her head. "Let's put it this way; do you remember when you first cried?"

Sai stared at her with an unreadable expression. "I don't remember my childhood. The farthest I've gone to remembering my past was my sketchbook."

Sakura bit her lip. She could remember that all too well, too. It had been the earlier times when Sai had just joined Team Seven. This was going to be harder than she thought. "Okay, fine. That time when you remembered what you were supposed to draw in that final page, what did you feel?"

Sai, this time, looked like he was genuinely thinking. After a while, he said tentatively, "Accomplished. That was the only thing I was taught; failure or success."

Sakura gestured at her heart. "But what did you _feel_? Was it a good feeling? Or a bad feeling?"

"… a good feeling, I suppose."

This made the kunoichi smile. "There we go. I guess that's a good start. We can make a bit of progress if we start by dividing things into _good _and _bad_. So tell me, what did you feel when the Hokage was looking at you, asking you about the events in the Sand?"

Sai frowned more. "… Confused."

"And was that a good feeling?"

"It was… very uncomfortable… It was a bad feeling."

"Yeah, it was."

Sai scratched his head. "But then what?"

"Then you start to memorize that feeling, and order your body how you would react to those feelings. For example, if you were a child, and you felt a bad feeling, you would cry, and when you feel a good feeling, you would smile. Do you get it?"

Sai stared at her for the longest possible time. Sakura felt her eyes water from the sleepiness. She opened her mouth for a yawn but was suddenly interrupted when Sai's lips parted into a half-smile.

"Watching you, brings a good feeling," he said silently, then started packing his books back into his backpack. "Is that an accurate assessment?"

Sakura felt her cheeks burn. Quite pleased that Sai made a comment that didn't make her feel angry, she returned his half-smile. "If it's an honest one, then it's accurate."

"It reminds me of this sick raccoon I saw in the training area two days ago, and now that I've tried to analyze it, that made me feel a good feeling, too. It looked interesting eating some weird fruit it must have found somewhere."

Sakura knew it was all too good to last. Grabbing Sai by the collar, she shoved him out into her balcony, and slammed the window in his face. One of these days, she was going to make him understand empathy.

* * *

Sakura had problems going back to sleep even after Sai had left that night. She tried her hardest for a few winks but ended up waking at around six in the morning. Finally giving up, she got dressed, went downstairs to wash her face, and decided to walk around the Village to wake her brain cells.

Big mistake. She ran into Ino Yamanaka the moment she passed by their flower shop. The kunoichi was taking out some potted plants, her long blond hair in a high ponytail, a red apron draped over one arm, and a very, very alert face the moment she saw Sakura.

"Good morning, Sakura," Ino greeted. When Sakura came close enough, she noticed that her friend had her hands bandaged.

"Good morning. What happened to you?"

Ino raised an injured hand. "Oh, this? It's nothing. I'm given the task as flower arranger in Temari's wedding. She wanted white roses for her bouquet, but…" she laughed tiredly. "If the wedding were to be held here, it would have been easier, but roses don't bloom in the desert so I've been looking around the groves in the Leaf Village for them. Thorny little things, aren't they?"

Sakura looked at the potted plants she had just taken out. Three thorny rose bushes almost ready to bud were enjoying themselves in the rays of the sun. Sakura frowned. "Lucky the wedding was postponed. They look like they won't be blooming in two weeks or so."

Ino looked at her wearily. "These were ordered _because _the wedding was postponed. I think Temari ordered these out of spite. These roses won't survive the weather in the desert, but what with the whole misunderstanding, I just couldn't refuse."

Sakura's gaze shifted from the roses to Ino. She waited for a blunt remark about Sai being an ass for doing something so insensitive, but none came. Sakura looked away. "It's because of Sai angering Temari, wasn't it?" She felt kind of responsible for her teammate's actions. "Sorry about that."

It was Ino's turn to look embarrassed. "However stupid he may be when it comes to understanding women, he is still a Leaf shinobi." With this, she laughed. "It's still our job to cover up for our friend's mistakes. No need to apologize, Sakura."

Today was turning out to be one weird day. First, Sai barging in on her room in an illegal hour, then Ino actually being civil.

Ino, too, seemed to have realized she was being out of character and she instantly blushed. "Anyway, I have to open the shop now. Where are you off to?"

Sakura groaned to herself. "I have no idea."

"You don't know where you're going?"

Sakura rubbed her eyes. "Sai had me up almost all night – "

Ino's eyebrows climbed her forehead, a malicious grin spreading across her face. "_Sai _had you up _all night_? And what exactly have you two been doing _all night_?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes at her. Count on Ino to think dirty thoughts about the silliest of things. "The Lady Tsunade wants me to make sure Sai masters his emotions in a month to avoid other predicaments like what we had in the Sand, and weird enough, Sai seemed so eager that he came to my room in an unearthly hour for it. It's a mission. Probably the hardest one I've ever gotten."

Ino scuttled nearer, so near it was starting to be very, very uncomfortable. "Sounds interesting. And what have you been teaching him _last night_, in your _room_, in an _unearthly hour_?"

Sakura could feel her temple throb in annoyance. She shoved Ino away. "I taught him never to do it again, Ino. Grabbed him by the collar and threw him out the balcony."

For some reason, Ino looked disappointed. "Oh. Well… Of course." She donned her apron and nodded at Sakura. "If you need any help, let me know." She gave her a knowing grin. "I wouldn't mind having Sai over in my room in the dead of night."

And that was when Sakura felt something very unfamiliar in the pit of her stomach, and it made her grab Ino by the shoulder and whisper in her friend's ear. "You're not thinking of getting your claws on him, are you?" she asked menacingly.

Ino jerked away from her, and started rubbing her shoulder painfully. "Geez, Sakura I was kidding. You know me. That hurt, you know."

Sakura, shocked at what she just did, looked down at the hand that grabbed Ino, then at her friend's shoulder where she had left angry red finger marks from squeezing too hard. "I'm sorry. I don't know where that came from."

If Sakura hadn't known herself better, she would have thought Ino's remark had made her… possessive of her teammate.

Ino shook her head. "You need more sleep. Go back to bed and get your sense of humor back. I'll see you later in the mission admission counter, all right?"

Sakura, who was still staring at her hand, nodded. "I'll see you later."

* * *

Ignoring Ino's advice of going back to bed, Sakura found herself wandering into the training grounds at the outskirts of the village. Not really knowing what led her there, she gazed at the nostalgic tree stumps lined in the clearing, tree trunks with painted targets, all battered and splintered from the thousands of kunai thrown at them. At this early, no one would usually be training, but she could feel a presence of someone in the clump of bushes in the far side of the grounds.

Curiosity getting the best of her, she made her way across the clearing, making sure not to make a sound. She doubted that whoever was in there was not hostile at all, but it never hurt to be cautious.

Much to her surprise, it was none other than Sai, dressed in his casual dark pants and matching shirt, crouched at something she could not see.

"Sai? What are you doing here at this hour?" She asked, pushed her way through the bushes to crouch beside him. It was then did she see what he was looking at.

There, barely moving, with a bit of froth coming out of its mouth, was a little raccoon. Patches of fur were missing here and there, and its legs were twitching as if in pain. One look at it, and Sakura knew it had been poisoned.

"It's dying," Sai said. "I knew it was sick when I saw it before."

Sakura looked at her teammate. Nothing could be read in those eyes. She hovered her hands over the animal, tried to probe it, sending chakra flowing through her fingers, examining the raccoon. She frowned. "It must have eaten something poisonous in the forest. The poison's reached its vital organs already. I don't have my gear with me right now, Sai. I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do…"

There was something that sparkled behind Sai's eyes; something that Sakura couldn't have imagined existing in the boy.

Sai sat back on his heels. "…. This is not a good feeling…"

Sakura watched the raccoon give one final twitch before it stopped moving. "What do you feel?"

Her teammate started to struggle for words. "…Regret."

The answer caught her off-guard. She was expecting sadness, or maybe even pity. "You… feel regret in seeing this animal?"

Sai frowned, once again choosing his words carefully as if it were the hardest thing he had to do. "When I first saw it, I knew it was hurting, that it wasn't all right. Now that I look back at it, I could have brought it back to you, then maybe it wouldn't have ended this way."

Sakura tilted her head to examine Sai's face. "Why didn't you? Bring it back to me, I mean."

Sai shook his head. "It didn't matter to me at all then, this creature's life. It was meaningless to me." He looked at the dead animal, once again as if in a struggle. "In ROOT, everything was the mission. You have no name, you have no emotions. No past, no future. This creature… it had no significant value to me."

Sakura watched Sai's face, those dark eyes, usually stoic, were a bit glassy as he averted them from looking at her. "And yet you feel something. A _bad feeling_?"

The boy turned to face her, eyes catching the rays of the sun penetrating the branches of the trees above them. "It wasn't until last night that I had associated this raccoon with you. And I saw it dying, and remembered you. And I felt… a _bad feeling_. I wonder why."

Caught off-guard again by Sai's answer, Sakura drew back from him as if burned. She fell on her behind on the grass, face heating up. Sai did not seem to notice her sudden reaction.

"Sakura? How do people react to this emotion? When something of little value to you dies, how do you usually feel? I've read once that when your parents, or family members or friends die, they mourn," Sai said, the last word seeming very unfamiliar to his tongue. "But this animal, it means nothing to me, but seeing it made me remember you, and I thought that if you were gone, I'm almost certain that it wouldn't bring a _good feeling_. What do I do now?"

Willing herself to stop blushing, Sakura gestured at the creature. "Would you like to bury it?"

Sai looked at her questioningly. "What is the purpose in that?"

Sakura smiled ruefully. "It is a form of respect, Sai. If we leave it here to rot, other animals will come and eat it. This may be just a raccoon, and it may mean nothing to us, but it, like us, had lived, and we try to honor that life by burying it so that other animals do not disrespect it."

Sai looked like he was deep in thought. After a few moments of silence, the boy said, "I would like to bury it."

Sakura nodded, satisfied with Sai's decision.

* * *

**_Somehow I'm really enjoying writing about this couple. XD And it happened to be my day off today so I started another chapter. This is very, very rare for me. I usually don't update my stories in months, or even years._**


	3. Chapter 3: Annoyance

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuden, though I wish I did. And another thing, some names of the places in the Fire Country were pulled out of my imagination.**_

* * *

After Sai returned the books he had borrowed from the library – as what Sakura asked him to do – he went home again, pondering on the events of that morning. The death of that raccoon had left him in anagrams. It was not that he didn't have his fair share of witnessed deaths, or kills to say the least, but for an unfathomable reason, that animal's demise had disturbed him completely. When he would remember that unmoving body, his mind's eye kept on roaming about, and an almost unbearable pain would hit him somewhere in the middle of his gut.

Eyeing his almost bare room, he proceeded to his closet, took out his ANBU uniform and laid it on the table cluttered with his paints and brushes. He paused, stared at the sparse furnishing, and instantly remembered how Sakura's room looked when he had visited last night. She had her bed near the window that led to her balcony, a dresser and a closet adjacent to it. There were no carpets. He could remember that well since it hurt when she had shoved him to the floor.

Then without thinking, he pushed the table he had in the center of the room to the far wall, then rearranged the brushes and bottles of ink on them. Studying his handiwork and feeling quite satisfied with it, he began to dress.

He had no idea why he felt like doing what he just did, but nevertheless, he gave the table one last look, and leisurely made his way to get a mission..

The sun was hidden behind some very menacing clouds in the horizon when he had set off for the Hokage tower, his backpack feeling incredibly lighter without the books he always preferred to carry around wherever he went. Hurrying his pace, he reached the tower in a few minutes to find Sakura standing in front of the Fifth

Tsunade raised her head when Sai walked in the room. "It's not like you to be late for assignments."

"Sorry. I had thought to push my work table to the wall, and had to tidy it a bit while I was at it."

Tsunade paused at what he said, shook her head in bewilderment and pointed to the space in front of her. "Stand in line, Sai."

Sai took his place beside Sakura, who was looking at him disapprovingly, and listened as the Hokage explained the mission she was about to assign them.

The Hokage was reading a very thin folder laid open in front of her. "The Feudal Lord of the Fire Country has asked our services for this C rank mission about a number of squatters in the Mukagawa Ravine east-northeast of the Village half a day away. It has a narrow but active river flowing along the downslope channel. At first the Feudal Lord was not really concerned about these squatters, until they started to grow in numbers. The terrain there is not safe; the water level rises there with the littlest of rain, and what with the rainy season here, the government has asked them to move six months ago, into shelters located about a day away from the ravine. They obeyed, of course, but they were back after a few months." Tsunade flipped through the folder to the next page. "The government has once again ordered them to leave, and they have, but with the chance of them once again returning, they want us to isolate the downslope channel by destroying all means of getting there."

Sakura raised her hand.

"What is it, Sakura?

Sai watched Sakura talk as she gestured with her hands like she always did when she was drawn in a conversation. "These _means of getting there_, do you mean stepping stones or hanging bridges?"

"All in all, there are twenty-three means of passage down the ravine. All of which are narrow stone staircases embedded within the face of the slope."

Sai blinked. "Team Seven is missing two members."

This seemed to amuse the Hokage to no end. She looked at Sakura and Sai then back again, was silent for a moment then said, "That will be taken care of soon. You will leave the Village tomorrow at dawn as a three-man cell. I'm giving you three days to finish this mission, though I have no doubt you'd be able to finish it in two, but I'm giving you leeway."

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "A leeway for what?"

"A handicap."

And as if on cue, there was a loud crash from outside, and the air suddenly smelled suspiciously of tobacco smoke.

Sakura's face lit up like a bulb, and she bolted to a dead run to the window. She laughed at what she saw, looked over her shoulder at Sai and exclaimed, "He's home!"

Sai titled his head to the side inquiringly, and suddenly, almost subconsciously, the corners of his mouth turned up into a smile he did not even need to will himself to show.

* * *

Sakura catapulted out of the Hokage Tower as fast as she could and was just in time to see an unconscious Naruto being gently laid down on the ground by a giant toad smoking a pipe. Hesitating a bit, wondering if she could approach her teammate, she took a tentative step forward but was surprised when Sai dashed on ahead of her.

Looking up at the Toad, Sakura bit her lower lip and went after Sai, who was now crouched over Naruto's unmoving body. "Master Gamabunta… Naruto…?"

The toad placed the pipe to his mouth, breathed in, then puffed out rings and rings of smoke that made Sakura's eyes water. "He'll live."

Sakura pressed her ear to Naruto's chest, looking for some signs of life, but what she heard was something different altogether: Naruto's growling stomach.

As if to punctuate that, Gamabunta leered down at the blonde boy, beady eyes full of amusement. "He collapsed of hunger, the fool."

This made Sakura pull back, face flushing at how embarrassing Naruto could be sometimes. But as she examined his stained face carefully, smudges of dirt on his nose and forehead protector, and on those cheeks with markings that strangely resembled whiskers, she admittedly thought he did not look harmed, though oddly malnourished.

"Did he starve himself on purpose?" was Sai's silence breaker. It had to be the weirdest question he's asked to date.

Sakura scoffed. "Who would be stupid enough to starve themselves to death on purpose?"

Sai looked at her meaningfully. "I've read in a book before that people – well, women more specifically – tend to intentionally avoid food intake to become slimmer to please to opposite sex. In reality, I had started to doubt that theory when I first met you because you eat like a pi– "

Sakura did not even let him finish. She silenced him with a good bop on the head with her knuckle. Sai let out a strangled moan and fell sprawled on Naruto's still unconscious form.

Gamabunta had his pipe halfway to his mouth as he watched them with observant eyes, as if enjoying the little play unfolding before him.

"You do _not _talk that way in front of a woman, you spineless fish!" Sakura screeched, so infuriated her teeth shook in her mouth. Although what Sai had said about women was about ninety percent accurate, with Ino as a perfect living example for that, she most certainly did not eat like a pig! In fact, she believed she ate in moderation, except for sweet dumplings, of course. And she ate with feminine grace, she did.

Well, except for that time when Captain Yamato treated them out to a Hot Spring Hotel dinner on their first ever mission together. But that was a totally different story. Sai had no right to make fun of her eating habits. And she was about to tell him that with another punch when suddenly, Naruto opened his blue eyes, only to find Sai still sprawled on top of him.

Sakura could have sworn she felt the ground vibrate with Naruto's shivers.

"Get off me, you! How many times do I have to tell you that I don't swing the bat that way!" Naruto hollered, shoving a very confused-looking Sai away.

Sai sat up on the ground, still rubbing his cheek where Sakura had landed her judgment, and smiled. "Welcome home, Naruto."

Naruto stared at him for a full minute, and his own face broke into a wide, toothy grin. "I'm home, and you'd better believe it!"

Gamabunta, having found out that the fun part was over, sniffed loudly. "I don't even see why it had to be _I _who had to escort you home, you little brat, when it's your fault that you refuse to eat for three days when you know you have to maintain your strength for training."

Naruto scratched his head ruefully. "Humans don't usually eat grub like that, Chief Toad. At least I don't. If you want to keep your stamina up, nothing beats an Ichiraku Special ramen!"

The giant toad narrowed his eyes at him. "I don't care if you prefer stuffing yourself with sodium your body doesn't even need. I'm off now. Let me remind you that this summons from Tsunade is the only reason why you're off on a break from your training, so the moment this mission is done, the Toad Sage will be summoning you again to the mountains. Do you hear?"

Naruto's eyes closed naughtily as his grin widened even more. "Loud and clear, Chief Toad."

And with that, a loud sound and a lot of tobacco smoke, the toad was gone.

Sakura sighed, crossing her arms across her chest and shaking her head. "So Master Tsunade was referring to you when she said the other member for this mission was already taken care of. And now I know why she said _handicap_."

Clueless, Naruto tried to get up on his feet, but was hindered when his stomach began to growl loudly again. "I'm totally fine. I just need three – no, make that four bowls of miso ramen from Ichiraku and I'll be back to normal."

Sakura didn't have the slightest doubt that Naruto was telling the truth. The boy's recovery pace was unbelievably fast.

"Come on, Naruto. Let's report to the Hokage and ask for the start date of the mission she's assigned to us. Then we have to get you to the hospital as soon as possible."

"Not the hospital! Ichiraku!"

Without even having to ask, Sai had reached out his hand at Naruto. "The village hasn't been the same without you," the former ROOT member said. "It was too quiet."

Sakura blinked rapidly several times as she watched Sai's body language towards Naruto, who had accepted his help to stand up. While the two had started hating each other – or rather, Naruto hating Sai and Sai not really caring – the male members of her team seemed to have created a bond that made Sakura feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Perhaps now that Naruto was here, even for just a little while, bringing Sai to recognize his emotions would be a tad easier.

Naruto wavered a little, his usual perky face now somewhat looking dead. "I need food…"

Sakura gritted her teeth, stalked towards Naruto and grabbed him by the ear. "_After _we see Master Tsunade." She dragged him inside the tower, Sai trailing behind them silently.

Sakura looked over her shoulder for a second, and watched Sai with half-closed eyes. Having been teamed up with Naruto for over five years now, she had been a witness to the boy's strange talent of making friends. No one could resist loving or hating Naruto. But up to now, she had always wondered how he was able to reach even Sai, who practically had zero skill in human relationships. But as she let go of Naruto's ear, pushed him inside the room where Tsunade was and followed after him, she decided that she didn't care. What she once thought as a nuisance to her life was starting to be one of the most dependable aspects of it.

"You look half-dead," was what Tsunade said when she saw Naruto nearly keeling over.

Naruto, still grinning from ear to ear, gave Tsunade a casual salute. "And you look as pudgy and well watered as ever, granny."

Then it happened in a flash. One moment the Hokage was on her chair, the next she had her face inches away from Naruto's, sharp brown eyes narrowed into evil slits and a grin that made Sakura's skin crawl.

"Why did I even bother calling you back?" Tsunade muttered, almost incoherently. She straightened up, stared Naruto up and down, then returned to her chair. "If we weren't short on manpower, I would have enjoyed the peace and quiet that's brought about by your absence."

Naruto still continued to grin. "I missed you, too."

Tsunade raised the folder she was reading earlier to her face, and Sakura could have sworn she did it to hide a smile on her lips. "I've already briefed your teammates about the mission I want you on tomorrow. At this state, I doubt you'd be able to digest anything I would say to you. I'm ordering you to head to the hospital after you're dismissed."

"I want ra – "

Tsunade still had her face hidden behind the folder. "We don't always get what we want, Naruto. In your state, abruptly eating solid food after having starved like that would mess up your digestive system, so it's best you stock up on liquids in the hospital first. By the looks of you, I'd say you haven't eaten anything for half a week."

"Three days," Naruto corrected.

"That's practically the same thing."

"No, half a week is three and a half days."

Tsunade slammed the folder on the desk, this time really annoyed. "Get your stubborn butt down to the hospital before I tend to you myself!"

Sakura jumped. "Understood, ma'am!"

Sai merely stared.

Naruto on the other hand, suddenly started looking around the room. "I don't see Captain Yamato here. Is he on a mission?"

This made Tsunade fall silent. "He is in the Sand, making amends for what happened two days ago."

Naruto was puzzled. "Is everything all right with the wedding? Come to think of it, why are we going on a mission with the wedding just days away?"

"It's a long story. Have Sai explain to you everything when you get to the hospital."

"But – "

"Dismissed!"

"But – !"

"_Get out of here before I send you back to Sage Fukasaka weeping!_"

At this tone, even Sai, who gave the littlest of reactions to everything, jumped, grabbed Naruto by the scruff of his nape, and dragged him out of the room in a flash. Sakura hurried after them walking backwards, bobbing her head and apologizing profusely as she did.

* * *

When the three got to the hospital, Sai was the one who sat on the stool beside Naruto's bed to make sure he did not run away. Sakura, on the other hand, had set off to gather supplies for their mission tomorrow.

Naruto was watching his IV dripping slowly, once in a while sighing, and sometimes sitting up only to drop back down lying on the bed. Sai, all the while, watched the curtains flap in the gentle breeze entering the window. He only looked at Naruto when he would initiate a conversation that usually lasted a few minutes, and then both of them would fall silent again.

Naruto once again sat up, scratched his head. "I'm bored."

"And hungry, yes?" Sai asked, his gaze traveled from the window to Naruto.

"Very," the blonde said, rubbing his stomach which had started to growl again.

Then they were silent once more.

After a moment, Naruto leaned forward and asked, "What happened in the Sand? Is Gaara all right?"

Sai nodded. "He is fine."

"Then why is it that Captain Yamato had to be sent there to… what did grandma Tsunade say again… _to make amends?_ Did something bad happen?"

Sai could only nod again. "As a matter of fact, yes."

"Tell me already! What happened to Shikamaru and Temari's wedding preparations?"

Sai felt a nagging feeling in his stomach, a very, very _bad feeling_. "I think it's because I did something that wasn't supposed to be done during these occasions."

Naruto nodded eagerly, leaning even closer, almost toppling his IV. "Let me guess. Did you make Temari mad that she decided not to marry SHikamaru? Coz if that's the case, that would really suck."

Sai scratched his cheek with a finger, a trait he had sort of developed when he felt a _bad feeling_. This must be what Sakura meant when your body memorizes actions to associate with certain feelings. "I don't think she's decided anything of the like, but yes, I did get her angry."

Eyes widening, the blonde sat back. "You didn't!"

"I did."

"How?"

"I drew her a painting."

Naruto paused, trying to ponder what Sai had said. "And she got mad because of that? I don't believe – wait, you're Sai. You can anger almost anybody with that insensitivity of yours. What kind of painting was it?"

"A self portrait of a very fat Temari wearing a wedding dress."

It took several seconds before Naruto got to digest what Sai had just said. When it finally sunk in, he was wallowing on the bed with laughter.

The very bad feeling in Sai suddenly melted away with this. "So you get it? I read in a book entitled Sense of Humor that making fun of friends strengthens the bond you have with them."

It took time for Naruto's laughter to subside, and when he finally calmed down, he clamped a hand on Sai's shoulder and said in a very serious voice, "You only do that when you want to die a painful death."

Honestly confused, Sai narrowed his eyes and frowned. "But you thought it was funny, right?"

"To me, yes. But you never say, or even _imply _to a girl that she's fat!"

"But Temari isn't fat. At least I don't think so. It was a joke."

"I'm gonna let you in on a little secret here." Naruto motioned for Sai to come closer. When Sai leaned forward, Naruto whispered in his ear, _"All jokes are half meant."_

Sai sat up straighter. "But I don't really think Temari is fat."

"But Temari thinks that all jokes are half-meant, so even if she did recognize your joke, she must have thought you think of her _as _fat."

This made the conversation very hard to follow. "But even if I did, which I don't, I don't see the reason why she has to get that angry. She attacked me with her fan and completely destroyed the Kazekage tower in a matter of minutes."

This made Naruto's jaw drop. "Was Gaara all right?"

"I told you earlier, he's fine, but now the wedding is postponed until the renovations are done."

Naruto put a finger on his lip thoughtfully, as if in deep thought. "How do I make you understand how to deal with women…? Ah, I got it." He faced Sai again. "Will you be willing to tell Sakura that she lacks feminine curves and has a flat chest even as a joke ?"

"Of course not."

Naruto nodded in approval. "See? You won't tell Sakura those things because you know as well as I do that she will pummel you to the ground until your bones are nothing, right?"

Sai shook his head. "No. I won't tell her that because her curves, especially her hips, are very appealing, and her chest is to my liking."

Naruto stared at him as if he had sprouted antlers.

All Sai could do was stare back as a very new, unfamiliar feeling sprouted not in his gut, but somewhere near his throat. It was not a good feeling, and not a bad feeling, or maybe it was both, but he just could not put his finger into it. He was about to assess it more when Naruto suddenly pointed a finger at him and screamed happily.

"Oh, my god! So you aren't gay?"

Sai furrowed his brow and another feeling so different from the one he just felt, this time coming from somewhere in his head that made his temple throb and teeth grit together tightly. He smiled stiffly. "No."

* * *

**_I would wonder if anyone here has realized that Naruto is homophobic? LOL_**

**_Anyway, I used the phrase "Believe it!" for Naruto's dialogue on the first part because I thought it to be really awkward to use dattebayo in the story. Though I watch the Japanese version of Shippuuden, I watched the English version of Season One when the young Naruto always uses "Believe it!" as his verbal habit._**

**_Anyway, thank you so much for the reviews, story alert and favorites! It's kinda starting out really slow, but I'm really aiming to develop Sai's character first in the plot before I rush into things. Please bear with me!_**


	4. Chapter 4: Kindness

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

* * *

Sakura woke up gasping as rolling thunder interrupted her sleep that night. Without even bothering to move her head, she scanned her surroundings and was confused for about a second before she realized that she was still in the hospital. Having finished the preparations for their departure, which would be in but a few more hours, she had returned to the hospital to find Naruto uncharacteristically behaving while Sai just sat on the stool next to his bed, looking out the window. He had _started_ to misbehave when she showed up, trying to convince her that he was fine and started to throw a tantrum when Sakura did not let him get his ramen. Of course, it took but several smacks on the face before he finally surrendered and was happy to lie back down on the bed whining.

After having subdued her over-energetic team member, she had settled herself on the bench situated near the door of Naruto's room, taking secondary precautions in case he decided to ignore her orders and slip out to Ichiraku while no one was there.

Sakura stifled a yawn. She did not even realize she had fallen asleep sitting up on the bench with her right cheek pressed against something very warm wafting a strong scent of charcoal and parchment. She pulled back a few inches, saw what she was leaning on, let out a little yelp, and scuttled to the far side of the bench feeling like an idiot.

Sai briefly glanced up from his sketchbook, blinked at her and continued on his drawing. "Good morning," he said dully. In the hospital light, he looked even paler than normal, and those flat eyes with absolutely nothing going on behind them were focused on his work.

"Good morning," Sakura mumbled, wiping a bit of drool that was already drying on the side of her mouth. "What time is it?"

"Three in the morning." Sai examined his work for a moment before flipping the sketchbook closed. Sakura realized he was already dressed for travel, and a lumpy backpack was sitting comfortably against his crossed legs.

Sakura groaned, then after a few seconds was on her feet. "Naruto…!"

"He's awake. He's eating his fifth cup ramen right now." When Sai saw her outraged face, he pulled her sitting back down and turned to her. "Right after you fell asleep, the nurse said he could have solid food intake and so I got some cup ramen from Naruto's house and hurried back."

Sakura raised her eyebrows at him. "Is he all right?"

Sai got then started busying with stuffing his sketchbook into his backpack. "Naruto is always all right." When Sakura did not say anything, he turned to her again and pointed at her face. "You have zipper marks on your cheek."

Sakura's right hand instantly flew to her face and her left hand grabbed Sai by the hair, using the boy's forehead protector as a mirror. All Sai did was grunt. She gasped. There, embedded on the right side of her face from her eye to her chin, were nasty markings that were unmistakably from Sai's shirt. Lightning erupted outside once more, casting an eerie light that made the marks stand out hideously. She let go of his head, and he continued to look at her calmly. "How long have I been asleep?"

"I'm not sure. I stepped out of the hospital to get ready for the mission a couple of hours ago, and when I came back, you were already out cold. I tried to wake you, but you punched me. So I left you alone." The dark haired boy examined her with a blank look. After some more silence, he busied himself again with his backpack.

Sakura sighed in relief. She was glad he did not bring up how she ended up falling asleep on his shoulder, because she knew that if he ever did, she would be too embarrassed and would end up beating him because of it. It was the easiest way to deal with situations like these; make the other person hurt. She was an ogre, she knew it.

Trying desperately to fix her hair, she combed her fingers through it and was slightly irritated to find out it did not feel like obeying her.

"It's the lightning," Sai said suddenly.

"_What _is?"

"Causing static electricity making your hair stand on end."

It was much worse than she thought. She grabbed Sai by the hair again and looked into his forehead protector only to discover she had a chunk of hair on top of her head standing straight up like a weed.

She was about to reach up for it when Sai beat her to it. His right hand, still smelling strongly of charcoal but was otherwise clean, was instantly on her head, trying to matt the offensive chunk of pink hair down. She had never had much contact with Sai in the past, except with her giving him a good one-two, but she was not aware that the boy sitting in front of her had such a gentle touch. After a while, his fingers paused a few inches from her face as he examined his handiwork. Sakura, in turn, was looking at his hand. There were calluses on his middle and index finger, as well as the tip of his thumb probably from holding paint brushes, and dark stains were under his fingernails which Sakura unmistakably thought as the charcoal he had used earlier.

"You can let go of my hair now," Sai suddenly said, and that was when Sakura realized she was still gripping Sai's head of hair roughly. She instantly released it and flushed.

"Sorry."

The boy did not seem to care. He didn't even notice that is was _his _hair's turn to stick up because Sakura had been holding it too long. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for the mission? The Hokage told us we leave at dawn, right?"

Sakura nodded. "You're probably right. And I guess now that Naruto's all right, I don't have to be here anymore." She stood up, consciously rubbing her cheek where the zipper marks were. "I'll meet you at the gate with Naruto before the sun rises. All right, Sai?"

Sai, looking quite silly with his hair sticking up in just one place, nodded. "Don't forget to bring your cloak. It looks like there's a downpour ahead of us."

As if on cue, the sky lit up with dancing lightning, almost instantly followed by loud, boisterous thunder. Sakura chewed at her lower lip worriedly. Just what they needed; a mission to a place where the water level rises with minimal rainfall on a _rainy day_.

* * *

Naruto, donned in a long brown overcoat and a pack strapped over his shoulder bulging suspiciously of cup ramen, was stretching when Sakura arrived at the main gate of the Leaf two hours later, her dark red cloak draped around her shoulders and her pack hung around her hip, full of paper bombs and kunai, the tent and other provisions she had prepared earlier sealed away in scrolls along with her other survival gear.

"Sakura! Good morning!" Naruto greeted enthusiastically, waving his arms over his head like a monkey.

Sai was standing not too far away from Naruto, he too, wearing a long dark slicker, backpack in tow and was looking at the sky expressionlessly. He only looked down when Sakura made it beside them.

Sakura winced as she felt something wet drop on her nose. She looked up. It looked like the sky was not going to hold it for them after all. Bending down, she adjusted her boots, then the small pouch containing several kunai strapped to her leg. Double-checking her pack strapped on her hip, she made sure her medic kit and antidotes were in it, those she had _triple checked_ before she left her house. Not that she was expecting anything in this C rank mission, but it never hurt to be careful. After doing so, she looked up again.

Naruto, too looked up at the sky with her. "Sai's briefed me on the mission. If it's gonna take half a day to get there, the water level of the river could have risen by then. "

"It doesn't matter. Let's set off," Sakura said. She made her way out of the main gates of the Leaf, Sai and Naruto following behind her a few paces. She had not taken but a few steps when someone called out Naruto's name from behind.

The three of them all looked over their shoulders to see a running Hinata, her long dark blue hair trailing behind her, and a bag of something in one hand. When she reached them, stopping right in front of Naruto and blushing fiercely as always, she handed the bag to the blond boy and said, "I heard from Ino that you were back from your training only to leave again for a mission When she said you were in the hospital all night I had wanted too visit but…" She blushed even more that Sakura thought Hinata would explode. "… but I didn't want to be a bother…"

Naruto, as dense and unaware of anything, scratched his head, grinning. "You know you can never be a bother to me, Hinata."

That one second, Hinata's eyes grew wider with obvious pleasure, until Naruto added, "You should have brought Kiba and Shino along, too. It's been a while since I've seen them and I had wanted to say hello."

Sakura felt her heart go out to Hinata when she saw the pearly-eyed girl's face fall slightly. But it took a mere moment before she started blushing again after pushing towards Naruto the bag she had with her.

Naruto looked confused. "What is this?"

Hinata looked away. "… For the road… in case you get hungry…" And without waiting for Naruto to even get the chance to say thank you, Hinata whirled around and ran away faster than when she came.

Naruto was left with nothing much to do but stare at the bag blankly, then stuffed it unceremoniously, almost uncaringly, inside his backpack.

Sakura did not know how to react to that. She had not known Naruto as someone who was insensitive; just sincerely ungifted with realizing that someone of the opposite sex was really interested in him. Sakura had never really interfered with Naruto's love life, because she knew that it mattered little to Naruto himself.

But apparently, Sai seemed to think quite differently. "Aren't you even going to look what's inside the bag she gave you?"

Naruto brushed his remark aside as the three of them started on their way again. "Knowing Hinata, it would be rice balls shaped as my head. Right now, I don't feel like seeing tiny little mes decorated with seaweed and dried plums."

It was an honest reply; of all the years Sakura had known Naruto, she knew that the boy was never really capable of lying. Deceiving, yes, but lying, a definite no.

Sai was not convinced but decided to drop the subject. In return, he was silent for the first three hours or so of the trip and spoke only when he was spoken to. He was either deep in thought about the mission, or deep in thought about Naruto and Hinata's relationship, or the nonexistence of it. Sakura did not really think Sai would take the sub-mission of controlling his emotions in a month that seriously, but she had realized that Sai was a little bit different. If anything he looked stressed.

Sakura was not used to Sai looking like that. Though it annoyed her when he smiled almost all the time he was referred to in a conversation, she was kind of missing his fake smiles. A smile was a smile, after all. But ever since they left the village, Sai's face had been a complete blank sheet. He did not even try to desperately make conversation with her, which he usually did out of the blue.

She decided to ask him what was wrong when they stopped for a water break by a brook they had found midway. Naruto had volunteered to gather firewood for boiling water to replenish their supply for later, and while he was away, Sakura took the opportunity to talk to the former ROOT member.

Sai had summoned his pot out of a scroll and was crouched by the brook to scoop up water when Sakura approached him.

"Something's bothering you."

Sai paused at what he was doing, looked at Sakura. "Am I that obvious?"

"No. I'm that perceptive." Sakura kneeled in front of him, the pot between them. "What are you thinking?"

Sai looked like he was having a hard time looking for the right words to say. Lately, he had been really careful with his choice of words. He seemed to have been unable to find them, so instead smiled at her, that smile that never reached his eyes. "I'm fine. But anyway, this brook could be the last source of fresh water we would run across until we get to the ravine. I know we're in a hurry, but the mission lasts for three days so I think we should stock in bulk. With this rain, I doubt the river water in the ravine would be drinkable. What do you think?"

Sakura stared at him with a rueful grin on her face. Here was Sai, on his second day trying to master his emotions, and he's already mastered the art of avoiding uncomfortable conversations. In respect to that, Sakura did not press on further with the topic – whatever it was – that bothered her teammate. She instead helped him gather as much water their pots could hold and was done by the time Naruto came back from his wood hunting. And with a tinderbox, they had the fire going in a few seconds.

While waiting for the water to boil, they sat down around the fire, hoping the rain won't fall on them until at least they've finished refilling their rations. Sakura settled on attaching paper bombs to her kunai while waiting. Sai was trimming some of his brushes with a little pair of scissors he had procured from his pack. Naruto on the other hand took out something that made Sai look up from his task.

It was the bag Hinata gave to Naruto before they left the Leaf village.

Sakura groaned inwardly. This was going to make Sai start his first awkward moment of the trip. She just knew it.

"Can I see what's inside?" Sai asked, putting down his brush and scissors on an unrolled piece of paper situated by his knee.

Naruto looked at him, dumbstruck. "They're just rice balls. Don't you know what rice balls are?" he asked but nonetheless opened the bag and took out a mini version of Naruto's head, its face giving them a black sesame smile. "See? I told you it's just me."

Sakura looked at the rice ball queerly. The resemblance was amazing. But she supposed it was because the only thing Hinata did when around Naruto was give him fast sideway glances. If anyone ever did that all the time, it was no wonder they'd be able to memorize one's face spot-on.

"Can I see?" Sai asked inquiringly, reaching out his hand to Naruto.

Naruto stared at the bag as if counting how many tiny Narutos were in it, and passed Sai the one in his hand. "Here you go."

Sai examined the food closely, as if it were the first time to see a rice ball. "Hinata made these?" he asked.

"She always does."

Sai's eyes met Naruto's. "And she made these just for you?"

"Well, they are _me_, after all. But it's no big deal you – hey! What do you think you're doing? _Don't eat me!_"

Sai had taken a huge bite of the rice-ball-Naruto's left cheek, and gave a look of surprise. "These… taste good."

Naruto frowned, having watched his face eaten by someone else. "Hinata cooks great," he admitted, still a bit sour that Sai had to take the first bite of the batch. Naruto was not necessarily greedy, but he did not appreciate it when people beat him at anything.

Sai nodded. "They taste like… they've been exerted extra effort on." He finished the rice ball in another two bites, and silently returned to trimming his brushes.

And the conversation ended with that as they all fell silent again.

Sakura bent her head down to avoid seeing Naruto's embarrassed face and pretended that she hadn't been listening to their conversation.

The silence was broken after a few minutes by the sound of boiling water. That was the cue, and the three of them extinguished the fire. Naruto and Sai started to carefully lug the pot to the brook to cool it off, and after some time, they started to fill their canteen.

"We should have just stocked up on water before we left the village," Naruto complained once the task was done.

"I didn't have time to seal water in scrolls because I had to do the preparations alone, as _someone _had been in the hospital and wouldn't _stay _there without a bodyguard to make sure he didn't sneak off," Sakura said good-naturedly as she sealed the pot and tinderbox in a scroll and stuffed it back into Naruto's backpack. "Anyway, let's get moving before it – "

Sakura's words were interrupted when the sky suddenly gave way to curtains and curtains of rain, instantaneously drenching them and everything else.

"Great. Just great," Sakura muttered, pulling up the hood of her cloak over her already matted hair.

Naruto and Sai did the same, and the three set off in a hurry, opting to avoid the muddy main road and decided to travel through the forest where it was at least a little drier than open ground.

Leaping from tree branch to tree branch with Naruto on the lead, Sakura felt someone staring at her. Looking over her shoulder she found Sai's dark eyes on her, examining her as if seeing her for the first time.

"What is it?" she asked, trying to control the annoyance his deadpanned expression brought her.

Sai shook his head. "I was just wondering, if all women made great dishes. Someday, I'd love to have someone make rice balls for me."

Sakura sniffed loudly. "Not all women are skilled in the culinary arts, Sai."

"Aren't all women born with that skill?"

Sakura blushed as she remembered making food pills that tasted like puke.

"Unfortunately, no." She pulled her cloak tighter around her and hurried her pace, leaving Sai trailing behind her, his mouth half open as if to say something. She did not let him. She was sure he was going to say something about _her _cooking, and she did not feel like wasting energy fighting in the rain.

* * *

By the time they reached the ravine, they were already drenched to the bone, tired, cold and weary. Sakura's heart sank as she saw how vast the place was. Trees lined the upper slope and the Ravine stretched about two kilometers wide.

Twenty three stone staircases. This was going to be a task, and with the rain giving them almost zero visibility, she was starting to doubt that three days would be enough to get everything done.

Naruto kneeled by the slope to look down at the crevice. His face dark and serious under his hood, he pointed at the far side of the ravine. "There are houses here…"

The revelation made Sakura gasp, and she ran to Naruto's side, going down her knees to scan the river only to see several crudely made huts already half submerged lined by the riverbed. From their windows she saw furniture and garbage being drifted away in the strong current of the river.

"Houses…" Sai, who had appeared behind them, looked at the huts calmly.

Sakura sneezed. Right now, if they were going to make a decent plan, their first objective was to set up camp and search for the twenty three targets of their mission. Getting up to her feet, she hurried to the nearest tree and began unpacking the scroll that contained the tent she had brought for them. "Let's get this set up before anything else."

Naruto obliged, and the boy joined her under the tree, more than happy to get out of the rain.

Sai, however, remained by the slope where he got down on a crouching position.

Sakura bit her lip. Now what was Sai thinking? "Sai!" she called over the noise of the rain. "We have to set up camp and make a fire before we freeze and die." Sai did not appear to hear her.

_Now what?_

Sakura left the unsummoning of the tent to Naruto and ran to Sai's side. "What are you doing?" she asked but much to her surprise, the boy had a scroll, already soaked in the rain, unrolled in front of him and a brush in his hand. On the scroll were a dozen or so tiny black mice and three snakes.

"Let me send these out to scout the territory first before we set up camp. This won't take long." His eyes unseen from under his hood, he appeared to be looking at the houses down below. "The Hokage said that the squatters were already evacuated, but seeing that garbage coming out of some of the houses, it would seem someone has been here not a few days back."

Sakura searched the river for what he was talking about. Half-eaten fish, pots and pans, some clothes and a teddy bear had just appeared from one of the houses and all of them got swept away into the river. Sai was right. There was a possibility someone could be here.

"_Ninpo! Choji Giga!_"

The mice and snakes all sprang to life, and without further ado all scuttled and slithered away in all directions and disappeared in the rain.

Sakura watched the last mouse tail vanish behind a bush. And even in this cold rain, she could not help but feel warm inside as she looked down at Sai who was starting to roll up his scroll.

Sai seemed to have felt Sakura staring at him. He looked at her and blinked. "What?"

Sakura smiled down at him. This boy in front of her, this boy who used to care about nothing but the mission, was worried about possibly non-existent survivors in this flood. While his orders for this mission was to locate the staircases and destroy them, he had unconsciously diverted from the goal because of the possibility of people being trapped in one or more of these houses. Very unusual, for someone who claims he doesn't care.

Sakura shook her head. "Let's go get the tent up, Sai. We need to get out of this downpour and plan what we have to do about the passages."

Sai nodded distractedly as he looked over his shoulder to Naruto who was now tangled in one of the ropes of the tent. "Yeah."

* * *

The next chapter would probably be a bit longer than the rest. Originally, I meant to keep the chapters no longer than ten pages, because I have this bad habit of making very, very long chapters. XD

Anyway, thank you for those who reviewed and added this story to his/her favorites. They are greatly appreciated!


	5. Chapter 5: Fear

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. **_

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* * *

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They had agreed to put the tent against a large hollow tree they found a few meters away from the ravine. It took them half the time to set it up than to get Naruto untangled from the ropes of the tent. Neither Sakura nor Sai could even think how the blond boy ever got into that mess in the first place, but none of them had the stamina left to make fun of him. Right then, their top priority was to make shelter. And a fire.

The hollow tree was perfect for making an indoor bonfire, as it served as a sort of chimney for the smoke. Once everything was settled, they all hung their cloaks on pegs Sai had hammered to the tree, and Naruto stripped down to his shirt and baggy shorts. In normal circumstances, Sakura would have pummeled him to death for obscenity, but privacy was a necessity they could not afford right now. She had also removed her red shirt and white, now muddy flail skirt, revealing a lightweight strapless chain mail that clung to her body too much for comfort and her black Chamois leather shorts. Sai, who majority of the time frolics around with his abs exposed, was not at all shameful to shed his top, but seemed to have enough decency to leave his pants on. Sakura still could not believe how pale he was. The dark-haired boy was looking at the fire gloomily. It must be from waiting for his little critters to bring him news.

Sakura tried to dry her hair by rigorously running her fingers through it. "You think the sky will clear sometime today?" she asked her teammates.

Naruto did not look too optimistic as he peered out the flap of the tent. "If we wait that long, we'll never see the end of this mission."

Sai nodded. "Naruto's right. It would be best if we could at least locate half of the staircases before nightfall, and destroy them, then destroy the other half tomorrow. That would be very hard to do, I suppose, with the water level still rising. Then we'll use the earlier half of the third day making sure we didn't miss anything, and the later part of that day heading home."

Sakura had to agree with Sai's plan because it seemed the most logical one they could possibly follow, though it was easier said than done. The ravine was just too vast to explore in this rain. She was about to voice out her opinion about this when two black things darted into their tent. Sakura did not even realize Sai had taken out his scroll and the two mice jumped into it. Sai smiled as he met Naruto and Sakura's curious looks. "I've found two staircases."

Sakura gasped in awe. "I thought you were looking for signs of life?"

"I was. These mice had to get down the ravine to do so. And the only ways down there are those staircases."

"Sai, you're a genius!" Naruto exclaimed. "Man, I thought we have to get out in that downpour just to look for those stupid targets."

"Actually, we still do." Sai drew several more mice and snakes, performed his jutsu and watched as the tiny things squirmed out of the tent. "Though I can send twenty three mice out to the ravine, the chances of them going down twenty three different paths are slim. I can command them to do so, but their priority is to look for people down the river. Once we rest a bit, I think it would be better to look for the passages ourselves."

Naruto thought for a moment before finally nodding vigorously. "That's true." And without another word, he jumped into his still dripping wet overalls. "Let's find half of those passages and get today over with then."

Sakura watched in resignation as Naruto stepped out of the tent, and with his usual hand sign, countless Narutos popped in a screen of smoke and all darted towards the ravine saying some weird battle cry as they leaped out into the forest.

Sakura was used to Naruto's recklessness, but in this mission she had no right to complain; Tsunade did not specifically assign a team leader, and she knew Naruto meant well.

One of the Narutos, most likely the original, popped his head into the tent flap grinning. "Be back in a flash." And with that, he dashed after his clones. Sakura could only shake her head in frustration. Count on Naruto to run off without a concrete plan.

Sakura fiddled with the laces of her boots and pulled them off. Her feet felt clammy. She hated clammy feet…

"You have nice toes," Sai suddenly said.

Sakura jumped. Sai had been so silent that she almost forgot he was sitting opposite her, shirtless and wet, one arm resting on his knee, the other hand scratching his shoulder unconsciously.

"Is that an honest assessment?" Sakura asked, looking down at her toes. She knew Sai was not very good at giving compliments, and toes weren't exactly the sexiest part of the human body, but it was the first time anyone ever took notice of hers.

Sai, as if suddenly realizing he had spoken without thinking, averted his eyes from her. "Yes. It's not until now did I realize you have such small feet."

Sakura stared at her teammate curiously. She couldn't help but notice that Sai had not insulted her ever since the mission began. Brushing that fact aside, she threw more wood in the fire, then decided to change the subject. "Have you thought your feelings out about Naruto and Hinata?"

Sai was a bit surprised with the sudden question. The hand scratching his shoulder stopped. "Their relationship confuses me."

"What's so hard to understand? Hinata likes Naruto and Naruto is completely oblivious of it. It's as simple as that."

Sai shook his head. "How can he be oblivious of those feelings when Hinata practically shouts it with her actions?"

Sakura had to smile. "For someone who can't express his emotions well, you sure are observant with these kind things."

"That doesn't answer my question…"

Sakura shrugged. "Well, how can I put it? Naruto is just… well, Naruto."

"And where does that put Hinata?"

Sakura paused, mouth half-open as if quite unsure of what to say. She looked into the fire absently. "Sometimes, we love people even when we know they would never love us in return."

Thoughts of Sasuke flooded her mind like a drug. Though she already made herself give up on him coming home, the memory still made her heart ache.

Sai's next question made her come back to reality. "What satisfaction do people get from having a one-way love, then?"

Sakura scratched her forehead, starting to get annoyed. "I'm not saying that Naruto doesn't _like_ Hinata. Because as far as I know, Naruto seems to possess some unconscious desire to protect the girl with his life. And this has been proven in many different occasions." She gestured with her hand, willing to make Sai understand. "But sometimes, people are content with how things are going, with or without reciprocation."

Sai titled his head, obviously clueless.

Sakura sighed. "Hinata seems to be okay with how things are going; watching in the sidelines, admiring Naruto from afar, gaining strength for him when he's near, and getting inspiration from him when he's not. Do I sound like I'm making any sense?"

Sai thought for a minute, eyes looking down on the ground. "I suppose…"

Sakura dropped the hand she used to gesture to him earlier. "But you _still_ seem lost. I'm sorry, Sai. I don't think I can explain well how things go with these kinds of situations…"

Sai shook his head. "No, no. Your explanation was perfect. I got the gist of it somehow. It's just that…"

"Just what?"

"It's just that… If the situation came to me lo-loving someone…" He stuttered at the word _loving _as if it was the first time he's ever put the word into use. He seemed to realize this and repeated himself. "If I were to _love _someone, I think I would appreciate it more to be loved back."

And with this Sakura could only feel for him. She knew the feeling, of the desire to be loved back. Sasuke never loved her back. It was like fishing a strawberry from a bowl using a paper bomb; it was virtually impossible. Sakura, however, did not want Sai to start being pessimistic about this emotion, especially now that he seemed to be showing quite an interest to it.

"I hope that when you do fall in love, Sai, the girl would love you as much as you love her." She gave him a small grin, then fished inside her bag for the small pouch of food pills she had packed before they left the village.

After that conversation, they lapsed once again in silence, listening to the sound of rain and the quiet chewing of food pills when three mice came hurrying inside the tent. They all leaped back into Sai's ready scroll.

"Did they find anything?" Sakura asked.

"One of them has determined a passage, but no sign of anyone down there."

Sakura was about to say something when ten Narutos suddenly started fighting their way noisily inside the small tent. Sakura felt a wire snap inside her head and with one swipe of her fist, the Narutos all flew out into the clearing, grunting in pain.

Sakura stalked after them into the rain, not caring that she was hardly decent and barefooted. "You idiot! Do you want to destroy what little shelter we have?"

The Narutos started talking all at once.

"I can't understand what the heck you're saying!" Sakura roared, and another attack sent all except one Naruto disappearing in puffs of smoke.

The original Naruto pointed to the direction of the ravine. "I've found ten passages down the crevice!"

The news brought Sai out of the tent, with his midriff shirt and slicker already on, and the long flat dagger over his right shoulder. "That makes a total of thirteen. That's a good number to start with today."

Sakura slapped her fist in her palm excitedly. "Now all we have to do is get rid of them." She turned to the two. "I have the paper bombs ready."

"Excellent," Naruto said. He stopped talking at once, a worried look crossing his face.

"What is it?" Sakura asked.

Naruto looked over his shoulder. "The rest of my clones were swept away down the river just now. The rapids are crazy down there. This could be harder than we think."

Sakura nodded grimly. She hurried back into the tent to get dressed. Naruto popped his head into the flap after a few minutes.

"Sakura, we're going on ahead. Sai's mice have all come back and they found two more passages. Give us the paper bombs and we'll start ahead of you."

Sakura looked over to him. "Good idea." She handed the pouch containing the paper bombs she had tied to kunai "I'll get dressed, kill the fire and catch up to you as soon as I can."

And with that, Naruto left with Sai into the rain.

Sakura quickly buried the fire with some rocks, threw on her clothes and cloak, then examined the tent in case there were things she needed to bring with her. She was surprised to see Naruto and Sai's backpacks completely forgotten on one side of the tent. She looked at her own pack. She supposed there was no point in bringing all their supplies with them as the task did not look like it was going to take too long. Kneeling down by her pack, she procured several meters of rope, tying one end of it to a kunai then stuffed it into the pouch strapped to her leg. Better safe than sorry.

With one last look around, she nodded to herself, satisfied and quite sure that there was nothing left forgotten, she hiked her hood up and broke into a run to the direction where Naruto and Sai headed off to.

* * *

Sakura could only gasp at what awaited her in the ravine. The riverbed was hardly visible anymore, and the only thing seen of smaller houses were the roofs. She found Sai riding on one of his painted falcons on the opposite side of the slope throwing a kunai at what looked like mossy boulders from where she was standing. She had no idea that the staircases would be camouflaged. Had Naruto and Sai not been ninja, she doubted those passages could have been found, especially in this weather.

"Sai!" Sakura called when she reached the slope, waving her arm over her head to catch the former ROOT member's attention. She saw Sai look over his shoulder and waved from his falcon.

"Where's Naruto?"

Sai silently pointed to his far left, and Sakura spotted an orange blur jumping up the crevice after releasing a kunai, piercing another passage that looked like undergrowth alongside a dead tree protruding from the upper slope. Sakura saw Naruto and Sai signal to each other, and Sai swooped over to Naruto, who hopped on the bird. They then made their way back to where Sakura was standing, and Sai's jutsu faded in a splash of black ink.

"That's fifteen down," Naruto said proudly, rubbing his nose with his thumb. "We've timed the paper bombs to detonate in five minutes. That would give us time to get away at a safe distance."

Sakura wiped at her face when it seemed the rain started pouring harder. "Five minutes. And you didn't even wait for me to help out a bit."

"You can do the remaining eight all by yourself tomorrow if you want," Naruto offered teasingly as they started to walk away.

Sakura was about to reply when something caught her eye. From under a bush, dark and slender, came one of Sai's drawn snakes.

Sai, too, seemed caught unaware of his jutsu suddenly appearing from out of nowhere. Unrolling a blank scroll he took out from his pouch, he let the snake slither in.

And at that moment, Sai whirled around, usually expressionless eyes now big with panic. "There's someone down there."

"_What?_" Naruto demanded between gritted teeth.

There was not much time to spare. In silent agreement, the three leaped into action.

Sakura, running low with Sai a few paces ahead of her, asked, "In one of the houses?"

Sai nodded gravely, the panic in his eyes earlier replaced with a determined dark look. "In the highest house in the farthest end of the ravine, already half-submerged." He frowned. "We have four minutes."

_Damn._

Naruto, who was running on Sai's other side, nodded when he learned of the coordinates. "Is it accessible?"

Sai took out his scroll and brush, wiped at his eyes of excess water, and drew a falcon in remarkable speed. "If we fly, yes. _Ninpo! Choji Giga!_" The bird swooped out of the scroll in a whirl of ink-black feathers, circled their heads once before swooping low to let Sai ride on it.

"Get on!" Sai ordered, a hand outstretched to Sakura.

Naruto nodded to her. "Go on. I'll back you up. If things don't go according to plan, it won't do us good to have all three of us swept away in the river. _Kage bunshin no jutsu!_" Several clones dashed on ahead of them, some going down the ravine as close as they could go near the water line, some standing by the edge of it, waiting.

Sakura gave the original Naruto a nod back, looked at Sai's waiting hand and took it, hopping onto the falcon. No sooner had she crouched down on the painted animal's back did it soar fast into the sky, and then swooped down into the crevice like a hawk. Sakura forced the chakra down her feet, making sure she did not fall from the beasts back. She quickly grabbed the rope from her pouch. How lucky was she to have prepared it just in time for a situation like this.

_Three minutes…_

Sai looked over his shoulder. "Over there!" he said over the noise of the rain around them and the raging river below.

Sakura peered in front of them and saw what Sai was talking about. The house was almost like the others – crudely made and almost about to fall apart – but it was indeed situated on higher ground. The window opposite the slope's face was thrown open, and Sakura could see a crying boy, about five years of age, sitting in the middle of the room hugging a teddy bear. "Can you get closer?"

"If you don't mind being swept away in the current, sure," Sai said.

For the love of her, Sakura smirked. _Sarcasm. That's a first._

Sakura's eyes immediately scanned the slope overhanging the house, looking for something sturdy to swing her rope at, and she smiled as she found a strong enough looking tree situated on top of the upper slope. Swinging the end of the rope with the kunai tied to it, she turned to Sai. "Did you plant paper bombs anywhere near here?"

"There are two within the area."

_Wonderful_, Sakura thought dryly. Letting the kunai-end of the rope fly to her target, she let out a cry of victory when it hit its mark. The rope wound its way around the thick trunk of the tree several times and lost its slack with a loud _twang!_

_Two minutes… Come on!_

Sakura nodded at Sai. "Back me up!" And then she jumped. Without thinking much about it, she jumped. The rope bit into her hands, making her wish she had worn her gloves, as she swung over the out of control river, straight into the window of the house where the child was. She landed on the floor, scraped her knee hard on a protruding nail. She didn't care. She hurried to the child who had stopped crying the instant she dropped in.

"You're safe. Come here." She grabbed the child around the waist roughly and headed to the window. She could see Sai's falcon soaring above them, waiting. On the upper slope, she saw a dozen Narutos all watching, ready to act when needed.

She tugged on the rope. If she could get on the roof of the house, Sai would be able to get to them. She turned to the boy. "Hold on to me, all right?"

The boy looked at her with tears threatening to fall again, but he nodded obediently and clung to Sakura for dear life.

_One minute… We can make it!_

After battling with the rope a few seconds, Sakura found her way to the roof, and Sai immediately swooped down to retrieve them.

"Good job, Sakura," Sai said as he put his arms out for the boy, which Sakura handed to him in a hurry. But the boy suddenly started struggling.

"Teddy!" he cried as he tried to free himself of Sai's grip.

Sakura's mind drifted back into the room, remembering the boy had a teddy bear in his arms. It must have fallen when Sakura grabbed the boy and escape through the window.

"What the heck are you doing, Sakura?" Came Naruto's voice from the far slope. "Get your fat butt on the bird and get out of there! There isn't much time!"

"He's right, Sakura! Get on!" Sai demanded, once again stretching his free hand out. The boy stared at Sakura with big, watery eyes.

Sakura bit her lower lip. There was no time to think things over. She grabbed the rope again. "It won't take long." And, ignoring Naruto's and Sai's protests, she shimmied her way down the window once again, and searched the room with her eyes for the bear.

_Thirty seconds…_

She found it lying on the floor where the boy had been standing. Relieved that it had not fallen into the river, she quickly grabbed the toy with one hand and the rope in another.

_Twenty seconds. _If she could just make it to the roof where Sai was waiting…

She could still hear Naruto's loud, worried voice in the background when she hiked one of her legs over the window pane. Pulling at the rope and getting ready for her ascent, she proceeded with her heart pounding in her chest. _I can make it!_

Ten seconds...

Sai's falcon was hovering over the roof like a panicky mother hen. "Sakura! _Hurry!_" She heard the dark-haired boy scream.

_Three seconds..._

Sakura clambered over the roof, panting heavily.

_Two seconds..._

She looked up and saw Sai's face, paler than usual, eyes on her, an emotion that she couldn't even have dreamed of the boy feeling. _Fear_. Fear for her life. She reached her hand out to Sai's outstretched one.

_One second…_

There were loud explosions in fifteen different places within the ravine. The earth beneath Sakura began to shake.

"Come on! Reach!" Sai screamed at the top of his lungs over the noise.

But she couldn't reach him. The house beneath her feet started to tilt sideways. She saw Narutos all around cluster around the tree where she had tied the rope to, and all of them started to pull her up.

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, relieved, as she gripped the rope with her one hand, the other hand still clutching the teddy bear. She was safe. They were going to make it!

But her joy did not last for long. One moment she was looking at Naruto and his clones rescuing her, and the next, she was overshadowed by something from behind.

She did not mean to look but she found herself staring as the water of the river rushed down into her, debris of splintered trees and fist-sized rocks rained down on her. And the next thing that came along made her gasp. The explosion must have dealt the river a great disturbance, because Sakura found herself face to face with a thirty-meter wave that did not hesitate at all as it crashed onto her.

Sakura felt muddy water enter her nose and she began to gag, opening her mouth only to cause more water to invade her system. Underwater, she felt her whole world turn dark, her lungs burning, and her hand, the hand gripping the rope, felt rubbery. She tried to hold on, but the cold water and strong current made her limp inside-out.

It was more than she could take. She finally let go, and felt her body being swept away into nothingness, the thought of the boy being all right being the only thought she had in her head. She hugged the teddy bear to her as if her life depended on it.

* * *

The moment Sai watched Sakura disappear in the black water, he felt an unfamiliar _bad feeling_ gripping his throat, making it so very hard to breath. His eyes searched the river's surface, and the _bad feeling _escalated when he could not find her. He turned to his other teammate, whose clones had been thrown back when Sakura's weight was suddenly swept away into the river. "Naruto! The boy!" And without another word, he swooped down to where the blond was, uncaringly dropped the child in the blonds arms, and was down by the river again in a blink of an eye. Naruto didn't even have the chance to speak as he cradled the now crying boy sitting on his lap..

_"Sakura!" _He screamed, though he doubted she would hear him over the river and the rain. His heart began to race. He was not used to this. He wanted it to stop. Dashing at his eyes, hoping for more visibility, hoping for the rain to stop pouring, hoping for the river to stop flowing, he soared dangerously low over the water.

And another unfamiliar feeling – _a good feeling _– sprouted within his chest, a warm, almost sickly happy feeling when he saw Sakura's pink head bob out of the river's surface like a cork. She had her eyes closed, unconscious. But the sight of her made him want to dive into the river with her.

He made his falcon hover lower into the river, making it catch up to the current which carried Sakura down the ravine with unreasonable speed. He tried to reach his hand out to her, and he could have gotten to her too, if a washed away branch of a tree hadn't tried to maul him over. He dodged the offending thing, nearly lost sight of Sakura, and hurried when he saw her head somewhere to his right. This time he was not going to miss. He was going to pull her out of this water hell and stop this _bad feeling_ gripping his throat.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Naruto, with the boy on his back, running along the slope. "Sai! Can you reach her?" he asked loudly, though sounded faint in Sai's ear.

Sai did not bother to respond. He did not have the time to. Right now, all he could see was Sakura's unconscious form, and he had to – needed to – save her. He attempted to grab at her again. Diving lower to the water surface, he desperately reached down at her again, his shoulders aching and arms shaking a bit from the strain. He was almost there! He felt his fingers brush her wet hair slightly.

And then in the background he heard Naruto scream.

_**"Sai! Look out!"**_

No sooner did he hear those words did a freight train hit his head from behind. He did not have the chance to cry out in pain. The last thing he saw before the whole world turned dark was pink hair and closed eyes, and he felt the coldness envelope him with a watery embrace.

* * *

Sakura felt her whole body aching terribly, from head to foot. She willed herself to open her eyes, and found her cast somewhere dark, cold and unfamiliar. She could feel her feet were still in something very, very wet, and she could hear water somewhere in the distance. Where the heck was she?

She looked down and saw the teddy bear still clutched in her left hand. That's right. She had gone back to get the boy's toy, and then everything went wrong. So completely wrong.

She blinked when she felt something gripping her other hand. The darkness was penetrating, but somewhere seemed to be a light source, and the faint eerie glow made her gasp at what she saw.

There, unmoving was none other than Sai, lying on his back, his hand gripping hers with so much force it was starting to hurt.

"Sai. _Sai!_ Wake up," she urged between chattering teeth, but the boy barely even moved.

Prying her hand from his vise-grip, she pressed her ear to his chest and sighed in relief when she heard his heart beating. She rubbed her bare arms vigorously, hoping to bring back some warmth in her bones. She just had to pick this time to get stranded in a weird place when she had decided to be careless and leave her pack in their camp. She had no food, no tinderbox, and no water. This was turning out to be a very bad day.

It got even worse when Sai suddenly began to tremble violently.

It was cold in this place.

Sakura abandoned the teddy bear to one side, pulled Sai by hooking her hands under his arms away from the water, and used her chakra to examine if he was doing all right. Nothing seemed to be wrong except of a huge lump the size of a robin's egg forming at the back of his head, which was probably why he was still unconscious..

By the time she had finished probing Sai, her eyes had started to adjust and she used the opportunity to look around. They appear to be inside an underground cave. The ceiling was low and moist. The air wasn't heavy so she assumed the cave was connected to a passage that leads to the outside, but with the water level this high, she doubted they would be accessible. The river must have swept her here after the explosions. But why was Sai with her?

She shook her head. This was not the time to think about that. Right now, she needed to tend to Sai before he suffers hypothermia. She looked around the cave once more and sighed in despair. Though there were some branches swept along with them inside the cave, she doubted she could make a fire with wet wood. But there was no time for wishful thinking. She got started with taking off Sai's boots and slicker. She held the latter at arms length and thanked the heavens that Sai had opted to wear something waterproof and nonabsorbent. She spread the slicker on the far side of the cave, dragged the still shivering Sai laboriously – who would have thought he could be this heavy? – and rolled him on it. Then she proceeded with taking off his shirt. It was not an easy task, since the patient was not being too cooperative.

She carefully laid the wet shirt on a splintered branch, along with his boots, forehead protector, gloves and pants. She had discarded all thought that she had just undressed Sai without his knowledge, and here he was lying naked in front of her.

She looked away, embarrassed. If she were not a medic, and did not know how severe hypothermia could be, she would not be doing this. _Right_. She attached her thoughts to that rational reason as she too began to undress, neatly hanging her own clothes right next to Sai's. Her face completely red from ear to ear, she gingerly laid down beside the dark-haired boy, pulled her own cloak over the two of them and wrapped her arms around him.

He was cold to the touch. She began to worry since the only warmth she could provide right now was body heat. If only she had her tinderbox…

She gasped when she felt Sai's arms snake around her waist, in desperate need of more warmth, and he pulled her against him, making her squeak.

This was the closest she has ever been to a guy. This, she knew then and there, was going to be a big problem, because though she had never really been romantically involved with the person lying next to her, she could not help but acknowledge the fact that she was very, very uncomfortable with their situation right now. While in normal circumstances, she was very professional in her medic work, she could not avoid the plain truth that she was a girl, and Sai was a boy, and they were alone and naked under the same cloak.

Feeling stupid for thinking these thoughts, she suspected that she too was suffering from mild hypothermia where the person suffers from mental confusion and lethargy, and will be back to normal once their body temperature stabilizes. Satisfied with that rationalization that she was hypothermic – that has to be the reason for her weird thinking! – she allowed herself to bury her face against Sai's lean chest, and inhaled his scent of charcoal and parchment. In no time she was fast asleep, dreamed that she was lying down next to Sai, each enjoying the warmth of the other, only to wake up later to discover that it was not just a dream.

* * *

_**Well, I wasn't really gifted with making action stories, but I wanted to give it a try. XD **_

_**I just thought that it was about time I try to some fluff between the two, though it was a bit harder than I thought. I didn't want to make it sound rushed, but I had fun writing this chapter. A little longer than the other chapters, so bear with me. And don't worry, I have no plans of turning this story lemony. XD**_

_**To those who reviewed, know that you are all loved. 333**_


	6. Chapter 6: Hatred

_**Disclaimer: Naruto Shippuuden does not belong to me.**_

* * *

The sound of running water and gentle, steady breathing woke Sai up with a start, his head still aching dully. Somewhere down his chest was… _something_ awfully warm, _something _that smelled pleasantly of cherry blossoms, pressed against him. He closed his eyes groggily at the thought of going back to sleep, until the events of that day crashed down on him like an avalanche; the passages exploding, the river going wild, Sakura being dragged down by the rapids, and him reaching out to her desperately.

And failing.

His eyes popped back open and looked down only to see Sakura, her face buried into his chest, eyes closed and lashes flickering like a dreaming child. Her arms, he soon realized, were draped loosely around his torso, and her legs, under the cloak that was covering both of them, were somehow tangled with his.

Using his free arm – the one that Sakura was not using as a pillow – he raised the cloak a few centimeters, peeked in and discovered that both of them were unclothed.

Unsure of what to do, and pretty much unsure of what to _feel_, he tucked the cloak back around Sakura's naked form and blinked.

This was the very first time _ever_ in his life did he get into such a situation, and he hadn't a single clue on how to react to it. But one thing was for sure; as he watched Sakura sleeping in his arms soundly, her breathing deep and slow, he realized that the _bad feeling _that had been gripping his throat when he saw her being dragged into the river, had disappeared as if it had not been there at all. Instead, it was replaced by _something _that was very warm that started from his chest to his head to his arms. Was this what they call _relief?_

But at that moment, something that Captain Yamato said to Naruto when the new Team Seven had embarked on their first mission, rang inside his head like a gong. They had been treated to a night in the hot spring hotel by their captain, and Naruto had attempted to take a peek at the ladies' bath where Sakura had been bathing. The captain said that Master Jiraya of the legendary Sannin had faced life-threatening situations only twice, and one of which was when he was caught by Tsunade trying to have a look at her naked. Master Jiraya had both his arms broken, and a couple of ribs fractured when Tsunade was done with him.

Swallowing hard, he analyzed his present situation, and could not help but think that women who were naked should not be looked at by men, else the man wishes to die. It was then did his body start to act on self-preservation; he decided to get up.

Slowly, gently, he pried his arm from under Sakura's head of tousled pink hair, careful not to wake her, sat up and looked around. They appear to be inside a narrow cave, to the far right was a concentration of stagnant water, to the left was a barren wall. The ceiling was low, but probably just enough for him to stand straight. Situated near him was a weathered tree branch where he saw his clothes as well as Sakura's neatly hung out to dry. By the foot of the branch were their pouches.

Sai looked down at Sakura again. She stirred a bit when he had gotten up, but still remained fast asleep. Sai picked up his pants, which were still a bit damp, put them on and sat with his back to Sakura. He reached for his pouch and looked for something that would prove useful to them. He then discovered that his ink jar had spilled inside his pouch, making him feel slightly… what was the word for it…? _Annoyed? _Yes, that was it. Plucking the now empty ink jar and throwing it on the ground, he examined the place again as he replaced his pouch beside Sakura's.

Nodding a bit to himself, he crawled to one side of the cave and started to gather some stones and placed them on the cold floor in a circle, then piled a few dead, somewhat wet branches in the middle of them. He reached for his shirt hanging from the splintered branch, used his flat dagger to cut the longer sleeve of his top, and wrapped a promising branch with it. Then with his dagger and a sharp stone, he was able to start a fire after several feeble sparks and a few failed attempts. The cave was bathed in warm light and Sai felt _content_ – yes, that has to be the right feeling – as he stood up, his head slightly brushing the ceiling, and walked over to Sakura to whom he threw his shirt over. He studied her for a few seconds, then decided to drape her clothes on her too to keep her warmer. After this task, he sat himself again in front of the fire, his thoughts swimming aimlessly inside his aching head.

He wondered what time it was, and wondered even more how Naruto was with the kid and the mission. He frowned. He had not expected this to happen, and he discovered that he did not like the feeling that was brought about by failure. He was not _trained_ for failure, and he did not know how to react to it if he ever did fail at anything.

But currently, he was in no position to complain. He could have just left the boy to die, and the mission of destroying the first fifteen passages would have gone smoothly. But he did not. Or even if he did decide to save the boy, he could have left Sakura to drown in the river and continue with locating and destroying the remaining eight staircases with Naruto. But he did not. If he had done everything according to plan, he would not be trapped in this cave with no water or food and no means of communication to his other teammate. If he had not let his emotions get the better of him, the mission could be over by now.

But what surprised him about these _ifs_, was that he did not _care_. He was glad they decided to save the boy. And he was more than glad to have Sakura sleeping soundly not too far away from him. He knew that if he did not do what he just did, he would be faced right now with one of his most hated emotions to date: _regret_.

Something near the water caught his attention. Ragged and looking very forlorn was a teddy bear, the one that Sakura was all too willing to risk her life for. He did not know what made him stand and pick the toy up, but he did. Settling back near the fire, he propped the teddy bear against the cave wall and rested his chin on one hand, once again getting lost in his own thoughts, one of which was something simple; Sakura's bare feet. That final thought made him smile for some unexplainable reason.

* * *

The first thing that Sakura noticed when she opened her eyes slowly was that it was warm and bright. Quiet shadows played on the low ceiling she was presently looking at as she lied down on her back, her body feeling light as a feather. While the events of the last few hours were left unforgotten for the kunoichi, for a second she wondered where she was again. When she finally remembered, her hand darted to her side and started to panic when she did not find Sai there.

"Good morning," came Sai's voice, as usual devoid of emotion, from somewhere to her right. She saw him sitting in front of a fire she could only wonder how he started, his back to her.

She sat up and gasped as the cloak and several layers of clothing dropped to her lap, reminding her that she had taken off her clothes to tend to Sai. She instantly grabbed the cloak and pressed it against her bare chest. "Good morning. It _is _morning, right?" she croaked back, rubbing her eyes. "How are you feeling?"

Sai, whose face appeared different with the light of the fire, did not turn to her at all. "I'd appreciate it if you get dressed. I don't feel like dying yet until we finish this mission."

Sakura had no idea what the heck he meant by that, but was taken aback with him commanding her to do something, as he had not done so even once in the past. Sai was normally never assertive. She complied, however, pulling on her chain mail and shorts. It was then did she notice her knee was wounded, and the skin around it was already swollen an ugly shade of purple. She remembered having scraped it on a nail when she rescued the child from that house.

"Are you decent?" Sai asked, still not budging from his spot.

Sakura sighed, exasperated. "Why are you being weirder than usual?"

"_Are you decent?"_

"Yes, Sai, I'm decent," Sakura said as she crawled towards him and dropped down by the fire facing her teammate.

Sai looked at her with those stoic eyes of his, and his face broke into one of his fake smiles. "I need you to explain something to me."

This was not what she expected from him. "What is it?" She asked cautiously. God, she prayed he was not going to ask why they were sleeping together naked.

"Why were we sleeping together naked?"

_Damn you, Sai._

Sakura shook a fist at him threateningly. "Don't you go getting ideas."

He blinked. "Ideas?"

"Yeah. _Ideas._"

Sai blinked again. "Am I supposed to get ideas at times like those? What kind of ideas?"

Sakura wanted to kill him for having to make her explain such embarrassing things. How was she to tell him what a boy would usually do to a girl if they were sleeping together naked? She frowned, suddenly feeling stupid. She shook her head. "Forget it."

Sai blinked yet again for the third time. "Okay," he said slowly, his stare returning to the fire. And then they were silent.

And now Sakura felt really bad. As she started to heal her knee with chakra, she turned to Sai. There was no reason for her not to answer a genuine question. And she knew she was obligated to answer because it was _her _mission to make Sai understand these things. "When we got washed away in here, you began to suffer hypothermia. You started to shiver so much and the only thing I could do was stabilize your body temperature using mine."

Sai stared at her for a few moments before looking away. "So you saved me." It was not a question. "I'm grateful." His face did not show any signs of gratitude. But that was to be expected of Sai.

"And those _ideas _I was supposed to be having?"

He just wouldn't let it drop. That, too, was to be expected of Sai. "People who aren't… uh… _intimate_ with each other usually don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Get naked together, dammit," Sakura snapped, somewhat losing patience. She was starting to hate her Master for giving her such a tough mission.

"Oh," was Sai's only reply. He paused a bit before asking again. "What do you mean by _intimate_?"

Sakura dropped her head into an open palm. This was going to be much harder than she thought. Though Sai is familiar with certain emotional terms, his real problem was putting them into practice. And though he had matched certain emotions to circumstances he could react to, like regret, confusion, worry and happiness – which he had breezed through with utmost speed – he could not seem to jump the hurdle when it came to emotions used to express in relationships with the opposite sex. "It's when you get along with someone really well," Sakura answered his question feebly.

"Like how I get along well with Naruto?"

"**NO!**" Sakura blurted out louder than she intended. A picture of Naruto and Sai being intimate flashed through her mind's eye and she shivered unpleasantly. "Intimacy is normally expressed to the opposite sex, unless you have other preferences..." She was not making herself look good at explaining this.

"So are you and Naruto intimate?"

"Oh, God Noooooo!" The mere thought made her shiver even more.

"But you and Naruto get along really well…?"

Sakura wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. "Let me rephrase that then: Intimacy is a term used for expressing your feelings to someone you _love_."

"Don't you love Naruto?"

"I love him like the stupid brother that he is," Sakura seethed.

"Hinata loves Naruto, so does that mean…?"

"It has to be a two-way street!" Sakura snapped again, honestly frustrated. "That's it, I'm ending the conversation. We can continue it when we are out of this cave, in higher ground where we could call ourselves safe. Until then, can't we just drop it?" The last sentence was more of a desperate plea than a request.

Sai, who settled with the promise of getting his questions answered after they get out of there, nodded and once again started to stare at the fire.

By then Sakura had finished healing her wound and started examining the cave they were in. Tiny droplets of water beaded the ceiling, making her assume that if she did try to smash their way out of there, they would only end up flooding themselves in. Her eyes made their way to the concentration of water at one end of the cave. She supposed that the place they were in really was connected to the river, and they could try to swim through the channel, but then that would lead them _into _the river, and who knows where they would be swept into next? She started to make her brain work faster. They had already lost so much time.

Unfortunately, her train of thought was interrupted by Sai asking a question she never thought he would ask her in a million year.

"Were you and Sasuke intimate?"

She stared at him, breath caught in throat. Flashes of Sasuke's face, or at least how she remembered him, paraded in her head, making her brows furrow. How many times had she tried to suppress herself from thinking these thoughts? How many times had she tried to forget?

What a hypocrite. The picture of the original Team Seven proudly displayed on her dresser was the living proof that deep down, she did not want to forget. Not yet.

But if not now, then when? It's been five years. Five long years. They felt like five eternities to Sakura. She wondered where Sasuke was right now?

Leaning back on the cave wall, Sakura closed her eyes. "We were thirteen when he left. We had barely a year to get to know each other… We were young. I was young. What did I know about intimacy then?" She felt sad about the fact that they never got to grow up together. She never found out what could have been, between them, had he stayed.

Sai's dark eyes looked dully at her, the fire making them seem deeper than they usually are. "I can't understand… what you ever saw in him…"

Sakura's eyes snapped wide open. She found Sai now looking back at the fire. She felt anger bubble from her chest, making her sit forward. "You can _never _understand what Sasuke and I had, what Sasuke, Naruto and I had. _Never._"

"Then make me understand. Make me understand what makes you think about a person who has abandoned his village, abandoned his _friends_, for a shot at revenge he's already fulfilled, and still keeps going with his twisted thinking. What makes him special, so different from any other rouge ninja, that you think you can bring him back and think that everything is going to be all right after?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "I thought you understood that he's a friend of ours. We've had this conversation two years ago, and you were content with that back then."

When the new Team Seven had an encounter with Sasuke, Sai had been more than willing to bring him back to the Leaf, in hopes to figure out what Naruto meant with _bonds_. Sakura had been more than happy to know that Sai was a part of their goal at getting Sasuke back then. And after two years, why all of a sudden…?

"Two years ago, I hadn't really given it much thought, that bonds came in different varieties." The light of the fire flickered in his eyes. "It wasn't until today that I've decided… that I hate anything one-sided."

Sakura's expression softened at that instant. Sai had just told her he _hated _something. He _hated _something…! She was not expecting him to master such a strong, complex emotion by himself. She lowered her eyes. "It didn't matter to me, how one-sided it was…"

"It matters to _me_." With this, Sai plucked a burned out branch from the fire, stood up and walked over to the water's edge where an abandoned ink jar was carelessly discarded. "How you knew Sasuke then is different from how I perceive him now. You and Naruto… deserve better than betrayal. And I would appreciate it a lot if you respect my opinion on the matter." Scooping a very small amount of water with the ink jar, he started to crush the black parts of the branch into it. When he was done, he returned to the fire, sat down and grabbed his flat dagger. "I admire you for your optimism, but sometimes I worry that your faith is greatly misplaced." He used the dagger to cut his palm swiftly, and used the ink bottle to contain the blood that immediately started dripping down his forearm.

Sakura did not find anything to reply to Sai's words. And even if she did, she knew she would be saying those things out of denial. Wordlessly, somewhat a bit shameful for having lost her temper on Sai because he merely expressed his thoughts, she crawled towards their pouches and retrieved a very soggy scroll from her pouch. She did not know why she had one free scroll with her, but still she felt lucky because she somehow understood what Sai was trying to do.

Sai was a bit taken aback when Sakura handed him the scroll but nonetheless accepted it without saying anything. Unrolling it in front of him, he dipped his index finger into the ink bottle, and started to draw a crude painting of a tiny bird.

Sakura frowned. "A bird? How will it find its way out of here?" She was expecting something more useful…

Sai pointed at the fire. "Look." His hand moved towards the smoke.

And Sakura's eyes widened in realization. The smoke, as Sai pointed out, was going up, going somewhere… She squinted at the ceiling, at the end where the wall met the ceiling, was a crack about two centimeters wide. The smoke coming from the fire was seeping into it, vanishing in its narrowness.

_"Ninpo! Choji Giga!" _

The tiny bird, not with Sai's usual meticulous pattern, sprang to life and fluttered aimlessly against the ceiling like a moth. After a second, it disappeared within the crack.

Sakura sat down beside Sai, and gently took the hand that he had cut to draw blood. Turning his palm up over hers, she placed her other hand on it, and started to heal him. "All right, Sai."

Sai looked down at her, somewhat confused. "All right what?"

"I'll respect your opinion. But," she looked into his eyes, smiling sadly. "I hope you respect mine."

And the conversation ended with that as Sakura healed Sai's wound wordlessly as her eyes found a teddy bear leaning on the wall, and Sai continued to stare at the fire.

* * *

**_Ooooh! An update! XD_**

**_I had never really liked Sasuke in Shippuuden. He seemed to have lost whatever redeeming quality in the manga, but I'm not going to tell you why, because that would be a spoiler for those who don't read the manga. I doubt a SasuSaku fan would be reading this story, so I guess I don't have to apologize for making Sai badmouth Sasuke._**

**_Thank you for those who reviewed and added this story to their favorites. Now, I'm not going to ask all those who read this fic to leave a review, because I know that that's purely your free will, but I would be very grateful if you at least let me know what you think once in a while. It's an author's one wish to hear from their readers, ya know!_**

**_Come on! Make my day, people! Keep me motivated! XD_**


	7. Chapter 7: Shock

_**After having watched the latest episode SEVEN TIMES where Hinata confessed to Naruto how she loved him, I just couldn't help but add a NaruHina part, which I wasn't really planning until later. But I just couldn't resist! XD We all need a lot of NaruHina lovin'.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

* * *

Naruto's head shot up from the now happily burning bonfire when he felt another one of his clones vanish at the raging rapids of the river. He had sent a total of fifty clones to search for Sai and Sakura before returning to their tent with the boy in his arms, but all of them seemed to have failed. As he watched the boy, now sleeping soundly in his sleeping bag, he was tempted to go out there in the squall to look for them himself when he heard loud rustling outside his tent.

Raising a kunai to his chest, ready for whoever it could be that was within their camp, he nearly toppled over when a flash of fur, fangs and claws darted into the tent, mauling him over.

"_Akamaru?_" He exclaimed between loving slobbers from the huge, white dog that was pressing him down with both front paws.

"We finally found you," came a voice from outside the flap, and Kiba Inuzuka's very drenched face popped inside. His wild eyes searched the tent curiously. "This rain was a bother to Akamaru's nose, but thanks to Hinata's _byakugan_, we located you when we got within range."

Naruto, though feeling unbelievably happy for the unexpected visit, asked, "What on earth are you doing _here_?"

Kiba frowned as he stepped inside the tent, pushed the hood of his jacket, shook his head like a dog to get water out of his ears and made way for two other familiar people into the shelter; as always tall and brooding, wearing a white coat with the hood low over his forehead, eyes unseen from under those dark-tinted glasses, was Shino Aburame.

"Shino!" Naruto greeted happily, finally succeeding in shoving Akamaru off him, and without thinking bolted to Shino as if to tackle him.

The light shifted in Shino's glasses, and he dodged smoothly to the side. "Don't hug me..."

It was just then that Hinata Hyuuga lithely decided to enter the tent, twiddling her thumbs as usual, her lithe figure clad in a brown cloak.

_Crap! _

Naruto tried to stop, too late. He ended up tackling the unaware Hinata down to the ground. They landed with a quiet _squish! _on the water puddle just outside the flap, Hinata giving a loud squeal.

This was the last thing Naruto had wanted to do to Hinata, simply because the girl would lose all sense of being when he came so much as a few inches from her. He could not fathom why, but the girl was confusing him. It was like she would come so close, only to run away as fast as she could from him as if he smelled bad.

He _didn't _smell bad, did he?

And just as he thought this, Hinata had already lost consciousness. "Na-Naruto… " she mumbled incoherently, her face red all over from under her rain slicker.

"My bad, my bad, Hinata! Are you all right?" He loomed his face closer to Hinata's and held up his hand in a fist. "How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked humorously.

Kiba popped up beside him and kicked him off his teammate. "You're not helping, idiot." He picked up Hinata by one arm and dragged her inside the tent where Shino was already drying himself by the fire, staring at the sleeping boy by his side. Naruto crawled in after them, rubbing his butt where Kiba had kicked him.

"What are you guys doing here?" Naruto asked his earlier question again as he sat at the only space he could settle on.

Hinata, who seemed to have come back to her senses, was sitting by Akamaru who was licking his fur contentedly. She started to twiddle her thumbs again. "The Lady Tsunade sent us about three hours after you left the village. As… back up..." She blushed when she saw Naruto looking at her, making her stop talking altogether.

"Not that I'm not glad you're here. But _why_?"

Shino looked over his shoulder. "She was worried. Why? Because she was informed by certain sources that the water level had already started to rise and wanted the mission over as fast as possible and your team back in the village before things get ugly here." He looked back at the child again, falling into silence again.

"Speaking of your team, where are Sakura and Sai?" Kiba asked as he wrinkled his nose at something. "And what the heck is that smell?" He must be referring to Naruto's smell again. Naruto hated it when he did that.

Naruto, reminded that his teammates were still missing in action, was on his feet again. "We have to find them!" And in a rush told them what had happened, about the successful annihilation of fifteen passages, about Sakura saving the boy sleeping in front of them, about Sai trying to save Sakura and was knocked out by a tree that was swept away in the river, and about not being able to get a visual of them since then.

Kiba sniffed, a low growl bubbled from his chest. "Although finding them is important, the Hokage wants the mission over as soon as possible..."

"We should split up into two groups." Shino adjusted his glasses. "Why? Because it's more efficient that way."

Naruto made a face at Shino for a moment, slightly irking at the way he talked, but nonetheless agreed. "With you guys here, locating them would be a snap!" He grinned at Akamaru, who looked at him wearily.

Kiba bared his fangs at him. "How many times do I have to tell you that this rain makes our noses useless?"

Naruto stared back at him stubbornly. "Can't you use your… uh… dynamic marking something to locate them? Once you mark something, the rain wouldn't matter, right?"

Kiba nearly mauled him over. "Your targets have to be _HERE _to be marked! And what makes you think Sakura, if she _were _here, would let me live if Akamaru peed on her?"

Akamaru whined pitifully.

Naruto grumbled silently to himself, crossing his arms over his chest. And as if an idea suddenly struck his fairly slow brain, he brightened. "Hinata! Be my eyes!" And without further delay, he grabbed a very startled, very red Hinata by the wrist and the two of them disappeared into the rain. Hinata did not even have a chance to protest. Or faint for that matter.

Back inside the tent, Kiba could only shake his head. "He went off without even finalizing the team to go complete the mission!" he said in disbelief, then looked at Shino. "That must mean it's me and Akamaru."

Shino did not move. "And you are forgetting _my _existence?"

Kiba put on his hood. "That boy needs some company. He's still a mystery to us, and we wouldn't want him running away again. I think it would be better if you stay here."

"… Fine." He began to sulk silently, hoping against hope Naruto wouldn't overwhelm Hinata _too _much.

* * *

The moth-like thing was hard to miss, especially since it splattered itself on Hinata's front, making the girl gasp.

"What is it?" Naruto asked worriedly, turning to face her.

"Something collided with me and it's – Ohhh! _What is this_?" She cried as she tried to wipe at her chest.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the black stains on Hinata's jacket, and then laughed. "It's Sai! He must have sent a message! Here let me see!" He tried to read the blurry writing, but Hinata covered herself with her arms.

"Don't look too much!" she begged, face an agonizing scarlet.

"Hinata, we don't have time! Just let me have a good look of your – "

"No!"

"Not a good time to play games!" Naruto grunted as he caught Hinata's hands, wrestled for a few times before managing to corner her with her back against a tree, pinning her arms to her side, then hovered his face inches from her chest.

There, black against white, was Sai's handwriting. Some of it were already getting washed off because of the rain.

…_ith Sak…ra._

_ Both well and..._

_ In un...rground cave._

_Nee… help ..ast._

"They're all right!" Naruto announced as he happily faced Hinata who looked ready to pass out. "They're in some underground cave somewhere. Hinata! Your _byakugan_! Hinata? _Hinata! _Oh, sh – !"

* * *

Sakura heard distant rumbling and was up on her toes. Sai was instantly on guard as well. When the rumbling stopped, he grabbed his shirt and slicker and hurriedly put them on, then strapped his pouch to his hip, the flat dagger in his left hand.

"What was that?" Sakura asked, cautiously crouching down to gather her stuff to her and, like Sai, put on her skirt and top, then her cloak.

"Who knows. Let's just hope it's not going to start a cave-in." Sai stuffed his dagger into the sheath on his right shoulder, handed Sakura her pouch and the teddy bear, then was on his knees when another tremor shook the cave violently.

And that was when they heard voices.

_"Just a little more!"_

Sakura gasped. "Could it be…?"

"Naruto!" Sai exclaimed.

_"No, Naruto. Not there! If you hit that surface, they could get flooded in! Over there! That's it! A little more to the left where it won't break through the water channel."_

It was a female voice.

Sakura blinked. "Hinata…?"

_ "All right. Got it. Stand back, Hinata! Oops, sorry. Didn't mean to bump into you… No, no! Don't faint again! Oh, crap!"_ There was a moment of silence, then suddenly…

_"Rasengan!"_

Sakura threw her arms over her head to shield herself from a shower of rocks and pebbles, and when she lowered them, there standing in front of her, were three Narutos and an unconscious Hinata being held around the waist by the Naruto in the middle, who had his right hand clawed and extended forward.

Sai, hair and slicker covered in fragments of the explosion of the cave wall, smiled a small smile. "You found us."

Two of the Narutos on either side of the original vanished in a poof of smoke. "Thanks to your jutsu, we were able to narrow down the places we needed to look. That moth of yours – "

" – It was a bird…" Sai corrected patiently.

"Sorry… anyway, it was pure genius, splattering over Hinata's front like that. Look," Naruto said proudly as he hooked his arms under the still unconscious Hinata's knees and cradled her to him, showing them the ink-stained jacket.

Sakura could only shake her head ruefully. No wonder Hinata was unconscious. Naruto must have stared at her good to read the message on her jacket. "Is she all right?"

With this question, Naruto frowned. "She always does this to me… Tell me, do I really smell that bad that she has to faint all the time?"

The depth of his unawareness was beyond belief. Sakura tightened the straps of her boots and made her way up the hole. "Yes, Naruto. You smell bad. Like week-old ramen." She looked over her shoulder to see Sai gaze at Naruto, Hinata in his arms. She knew what the dark-haired boy was thinking, but talking in this certain time and place was inappropriate, and so she said, "Why on earth is Hinata here?"

Naruto, who was looking down at the Hyuuga's face oddly, looked up and smiled. "Team Eight was sent for backup. What perfect timing, don't you think?"

"Where are Kiba and Shino?"

"Ah, I left them in the tent," he said, off-handedly. "Said something about getting the mission over with as soon as possible coz it's dangerous and stuff like that, so they were sent by Grandma Tsunade to hasten things up."

Sai nodded, but he was still observing Naruto and Hinata like a hawk. "Then we'd better rally back to camp. How is the boy?"

"What boy? Oh! _That _boy. He's out cold in my sleeping bag." He grinned. "How have things been with you two?"

Sakura felt her face heat up at the remembrance of the time when she was alone with Sai. "Just dandy. Let's go," she said shortly, and made their way up the hole Naruto made for them.

Outside, it was still raining cats and dogs. Sakura helped Naruto undo his coat, slung Hinata over his shoulders piggy-back style, and covered her with it. Sai watched them the whole time. Sakura knew he was bursting to say something, but he seemed to be saving it for a better time. When they set off into the trees towards their camp, rain beating down on them mercilessly, that was when Sai took his opportunity to talk.

"Hinata… seems to like you a lot…" The statement was so straightforward that Sakura almost missed a step.

Naruto looked over his shoulder at him, eyes narrowed into slits. "Whaddya talking about?"

It took Sai a moment before he could muster up one of his fake smiles. "She seems to like being around you, and cook you food, and help you out…"

Naruto frowned at him and turned his eyes back on the trail. "She runs away when she sees me, and she faints when I get too close. I don't think we really ever had a decent conversation where she doesn't stutter and shuffle about as if she can't wait to get away from me. She's always struck me as negative, hesitant and just plain weird…" And with this, Naruto's frown deepened. "But I kind of like those kind of people… "

Sai tilted his head slightly, and that was when it happened.

Hinata opened her eyes slightly.

And whispered loud enough for Sakura to hear.

"I like you, too, Naruto…"

And that was when she lost it. Sakura _really _missed a step this time, her foot slipping on a branch. Arms flailing wildly at her side, she landed in a bush on her butt.

Sai and Naruto did a double-take, and they landed in front of her, Sai kneeling by her side.

"What happened? Does your knee still hurt?" Sai asked her emotionlessly.

Sakura tried to get up, pulled at a branch running up her leg, and stared at Naruto who was looking at her with equally startled eyes. "Naruto… you…!" This was a breakthrough... She knew it!

"What?" Naruto asked stupidly.

"Just a second ago…"

Naruto's eyes once again narrowed into slits, the way they always did when he needed to use his brain extra hard to understand something. "What is it already?"

Sakura pointed at him dumbly. "You just said you like Hinata… and she… just said she liked you…"

Naruto squinted harder. "Yeah, so?"

"That makes you…"

"Just say it already!"

"_That makes Hinata your girlfriend…"_

Sai's usually flat eyes widened, and he took a step back as if shocked.

It took a while before it sank into Naruto, though. When it did, Naruto's blue eyes popped open like balloons. His head stiffly turned to the girl, whose own pearly eyes were round as saucers. Her face was not red, but was a hideous shade of purple.

"So," Sai uttered feebly. "If a girl and a guy say they like each other, they're… _committed_… or is that the wrong word…? They enter a relationship…? I'm confused…"

Sakura, whose finger was still frozen as she pointed at Naruto, nodded her head stiffly. "Yes."

And the most unbelievable thing happened. Naruto blushed. He _blushed_.

"I… you… we…" were the only words that came out of the blonde's mouth. Hinata, who was still staring into nothingness, looked like she had been petrified, unsure of what just happened.

Sai was watching them like lab specimens.

And for all that was worth, Sakura's hardening face broke into a smile. "Congratulations, Naruto. You've made another bond."

Naruto blinked, and he could not keep his eyes off Hinata, who looked like she died on his back. "My… girlfriend…?" It looked like something had dawned within the blonde, and his face cracked a somewhat small smile that could have – _could have_ –gotten wider.

Until Hinata took a deep breath and threw up on Naruto's shoulder.

Sai winced. "Lovely…"

* * *

_**One thing I need to clear before anything else: I am a huge NaruHina fan. **_

_**Though this fic is mostly centered on Sakura and Sai, there will be other pairings that would make their entrance in the next chapters, like Shikamaru and Temari, which I've already introduced in the first chapter, and Neji and Tenten because I think they are cute, and I think Tenten is being deprived of screen time and that her character should have been developed more in the series. Why didn't they, anyway? Hmph!**_

_**Anyway, please read and review. Review? (wink, wink!) I'll give you Hinata plushies if you do! Yes? Okay? XD**_


	8. Chapter 8: Discomfort

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden. **_

_**And one more thing, I am not sure if Kurenai Sensei's child will be a boy or a girl, but for the sake of this fanfic, I've decided it to be a boy, and I named him Asuma, after his father. If in the series it turns out to be a girl, then I'm sorry. XD**_

_**On another note, I have never seen Sakura's parents before. I believe they were never shown in the manga or anime. And that sucks because I don't even know their names. So in this chapter, let's just say Sakura is living alone. In the later chapters, MAYBE, I would create parents for her, because it would benefit Sai so much if she did.**_

* * *

Sai had always stood out in ROOT as the strongest in his generation. Because of his lack of emotions, he was able to finish missions – however unethical and unpleasant that mission was – with swift efficiency. With his special jutsu, he was practically a one-man reconnaissance team, and without having to say it, he was one hell of an assassin.

In short, he got the job done, and he did it fast and clean.

Sai was also very observant. After all, he _was _an artist. Paying attention to minute details was important to him. After having joined Team Seven, he had discovered he liked using his observation skills mostly on Naruto Uzumaki. One, because he was interesting, and two, he was _so _very easy to read. As Sai was used to working alone, and teams weren't really his thing, having to work with other people had been a burden.

Until he started to understand that Naruto Uzumaki was an idiot.

The blonde was loud and had spent his first days of getting to know Sai acting spiteful and cold and outright rude to him, and had he been a _normal _person, he was sure he would have gotten hurt by his rejection.

But one of the many redeeming qualities Naruto Uzumaki had was his sheer determination to never give up. That, and his sincere belief that people are good. He had wondered how this loudmouth, cocky idiot could draw girls and guys alike to him in droves.

But he knew the reason the moment when he, too, was sucked into his world. Two years on the same team with him, and Sai finally concluded that no one could hate this boy, because there was absolutely _nothing_ to hate. His childlike honesty with the people around him and his honesty to himself made him grow on you.

That said, Sai still thought, in his heart of hearts, that Naruto Uzumaki was still just that, an idiot. But a heroic idiot nonetheless. Or would it be better to call him an idiotic hero?

And he was showing his idiocy right now as they watched Team Eight, a sleeping Hinata riding on Akamaru's back, walk away from them as they reached the village gates after saying their short goodbyes, where Naruto's only parting words were, "Nmphfgh."

The mission had been a success. Kiba and Akamaru had located the passages in no time, destroyed them and came back to their camp where Sai's group had arrived first. They rested a bit, and decided to travel at night, having short breaks along the way. Hinata had been out like a light, and if Sai didn't know any better, he would have assumed she was just pretending to sleep to avoid awkward conversations.

"Didn't you realize she liked you?" Sakura asked Naruto as Team Eight disappeared around an alley leading to the Hyuuga Manor.

Naruto, looking stoned, shook his head. "I just thought she was shy around people…"

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "Only when around you. Which is ironic, because she's changed a lot _because _of you."

Sai listened to what Sakura was saying with interest. Though he had interacted with a few of Naruto's friends, Hinata was always the one who didn't talk much.

"The moment you entered the academy, the only thing she looked at was you. As a model, an inspiration. She had wanted to be like you." Sakura smiled a half-smile. "And she is what she is now because of you. Didn't you even notice, just a bit, that she had feelings for you?"

It was just a question, Sai knew, and somehow he knew where the conversation was going, but lost it when Naruto whirled around and faced Sakura, his hands curled into fists.

"Did you think when I was little, I had time noticing someone who liked me when everyone else hated my guts? Did you think I'd know someone was looking at me like a role-model when everyone else looked down on me like trash?" It was no sooner out of his mouth when he realized he had said too much. Naruto shook his head, his fists relaxing. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I shouldn't have said that."

Sai watched how Naruto's usually smiling face broke out into a frown. Sakura, also surprised at probably Naruto's first and only complaint about his youth, looked at the blonde sadly.

"She was like me, in so many different ways. Trying to prove herself worthy of respect." Naruto's gaze traveled to where Team Eight had disappeared to. "And there was something about her… that's always wanted me to cheer her on."

"It must be because you like her," Sakura said gently. "And she's loved you from the very start, even _before_ you gained the respect you have now. Even _before_ you've been considered this Village's hero. Even _before_ you got strong. She's loved you at your weakest, Naruto. Isn't that what love is?"

Sai suddenly felt himself inhale sharply at what Sakura said. There it goes again, that word. Love. It was probably the hardest emotion he was going to have to master in a month's time.

Naruto turned to Sakura again, a sudden light appearing behind his baby-blue eyes. "I, I have to go… somewhere… I'll see you guys at Granny's tower." And with that, without even bothering to hear Sakura or Sai's response, he ran to the direction for the Hyuuga Manor.

Sakura watched him go, and sighed as she turned back to Sai. "I guess that leaves the reporting to us."

Sai looked down at her. "Is Naruto going to be all right?"

This made Sakura laugh. "Naruto? Oh, you don't have to worry about him. He catches on slow, but when he does, he pulls through one way or another. In fact, as you probably know, Naruto thinks better than anyone else under great amounts of pressure. We, on the other hand, have business to take care of. And I can't wait to get out of this rain." And, reaching up to Sai's shoulder to adjust the cloak that was covering the boy riding on his back, then tucking the teddy bear in Sai's arm, she began to walk towards the Hokage tower, Sai trailing behind her.

* * *

After having the full report of the mission to Lady Tsunade, Sai was ordered to take the boy to the hospital for treatment before sending an escort for him to the shelters, leaving Sakura and the Hokage alone in her office.

"Looks like everything went well," Tsunade said, stamping the thin folder on her desk with satisfaction. "I shouldn't have taken it too lightly. Who would have thought there would still be someone down there."

"It was all thanks to Sai," Sakura said, remembering how the artist had wanted to make sure everyone was evacuated before they started the operation.

Tsunade's brown eyes gazed at her curiously. "And how goes _your _mission?"

The reminder of it made Sakura's insides swell. She was not going to lie to her master, but it still took time before she could reply. "I don't think I can do this in a month, My Lady. It's like making him understand nineteen years of emotions in just thirty days."

Tsunade raised one perfectly arched golden eyebrow. "It's not like you to give up when you've hardly even started, Sakura. Did anything happen?"

Sakura shrank from her gaze, turned away. "Nothing. I'm sorry for complaining."

"Something _did _happen, right?"

Grudgingly, Sakura nodded. "He asks uncomfortable questions."

"That's hardly any reason for you to back out on a mission. You _know_ Sai always asks uncomfortable questions and _makes_ uncomfortable statements and you can't blame him for that. We should be grateful he's eager to learn."

"Yes… but…"

"But what?"

"He… talks about Sasuke…" Sakura said, almost in a whisper. "And what makes it even worse is that all that he said was almost true. But I didn't want to believe it." She wrapped her arms around herself as flashbacks of that time in the cave with Sai paraded in her head.

"_I can't understand… what you ever saw in him…"_

"_You can never understand what Sasuke and I had, what Sasuke, Naruto and I had. Never."_

"_Then make me understand. Make me understand what makes you think about a person who has abandoned his village, abandoned his friends, for a shot at revenge he's already fulfilled, and still keeps going with his twisted thinking. What makes him so special, so different from any other rouge ninja, that you think you can bring him back and think that everything is going to be all right after?"_

"_I thought you understood that he's a friend of ours. We've had this conversation two years ago, and you were content with that back then."_

"_Two years ago, I hadn't really given it much thought, that bonds came in different varieties. It wasn't until today that I've decided… that I hate anything one-sided."_

Probably one of the most painful conversations Sakura has ever had with Sai to date. And what made it worse was that she knew that Sai meant well.

Tsunade, who was not used to having Sakura unstable like this, could only sigh as she leaned back on her chair, watching her in silence. The Hokage, Sakura knew, had already done her best in stretching things for Sasuke's sake, but a woman could only do so much, and even the Hokage was not God. "Sometimes," Tsunade started, "we just have to accept what life throws at us. And we have to… let go."

Sakura lowered her head sadly.

"Even if we manage to bring him back, there is no future for him here. Not in the Leaf. Not anywhere. He has already tampered with affairs of other nations, and has proven to be a threat to peace between the Lands," Tsunade said to her, though Sakura had heard it many times before.

Sakura nodded. "I know, Lady Tsunade. I had just hoped… that maybe… things could be different…"

"So you want me to give Sasuke special treatment because he is your friend?" Tsunade asked skeptically.

"No, my Lady! I mean – "

"I know what you feel, Sakura. All too well, it hurts me just looking at you." Tsunade swiveled her chair to face the window, her back to Sakura. "I know the pain of losing a teammate, especially when it was in their own accord that they left. But you have to remember, Sakura, aside from Sasuke, there are people right here and right now that matter to you as you to them. Naruto, Sai, Yamato, Kakashi, your batch." She whirled around again to face her. "Have you even thought about… moving on?"

Sakura looked at her master reproachfully. "I am not a child anymore. I _had_ moved on. But sometimes I can't help but hope – "

"Hoping Sasuke would come back is like me hoping for Orochimaru to come home with him," Tsunade cut her off, somewhat sadly. "You're a good girl, Sakura. One of these days you can actually be one of the best medic nins in this village, better than me, most probably. You have a future ahead of you. But Sasuke is not a part of it. I'm sorry."

Sakura felt a stinging sensation at the back of her nose, making her eyes water, but she nodded anyway and looked at Tsunade straight in the face. "Understood, ma'am."

"Good. You are dismissed."

Sakura bowed her head briskly, then hurriedly exited the office, closing the door behind her and leaning on it tiredly. She knew the Hokage was right. Everything she said to her was nothing new. She had heard it many times before, but somehow, this time made it so hard to accept, simply because of her pride; she did not want to admit that Sai had been right. Sakura did not believe it two years ago, and she did not want to believe it now. Pushing back her wet hair over her forehead, she pushed herself off the door. Right now, a long, warm bath seemed so very appealing. And after that, maybe a cup of tea and sympathy.

* * *

After depositing the child in the hospital, Sai felt mildly uncomfortable at the thought of going home alone. Inside his head were questions he wanted – _needed_ – answers to, and had it not been for his promise to Sakura that he would not open his books for a month, he would have been in the library right now. But since the library was out of the question, he found out he was completely lost with no idea what to do.

"You look like a homeless cat waiting to be adopted."

Sai looked up and smelled Shikamaru's smoke before he saw him. As usual, he had a cigarette between his lips, a bored expression on his face. He was sitting under the shade of a tree by the hospital garden. Sai, not knowing how to react to this guy, whose wedding he had just ruined, put on the only thing he could think of at the moment; a smile.

"Hello," he greeted. "Do you mind if I join you under that tree?"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at him. "It's a free tree."

Sai made his way to him and decided not to sit down. He had been hit by Naruto many times before after claiming that he just got _'too close_', and with the back of his head still a bit hurting, he did not feel like getting beat up at the moment. "What are you doing here?"

Shikamaru shrugged and extinguished his cigarette on an empty can sitting beside him. "It's Asuma's check-up today, and I escorted Kurenai Sensei because I had nothing better to do."

Sai looked at the boy sitting on the grass flatly. He had underestimated this Chuunin in the past several times before, but was proven wrong more times than that. Although Shikamaru seldom took initiative, and majority of the time loved to do absolutely nothing, he always came out exceeding expectations when the situation called for it. "How old is little Asuma again?"

"A year and a half. He's starting to look a lot like his old man. I hope to God he doesn't get any weird habits, like smoking." Shikamaru emphasized this by lighting another cigarette, then gestured the pack to Sai. "Want one?"

Sai stared at him expressionlessly. "Did you know cigarettes contain Formaldehyde that's used to embalm dead people and that one of two smokers end up dying from a smoking –related disease by their forties or fifties?"

Shikamaru winced at him and stuffed the cigarette pack in his pocket. "Meh, with my luck, I'd probably die by thirty-seven, choking on my pillow." Saying this, he dragged on his cigarette once. "Where are you off to?"

Sai paused. "I… home, I suppose."

"You and your team just got back from the mission, right? Where are Sakura and Naruto?"

"They're… around." Sai cocked his head to the right. "How is Temari?"

Shikamaru's almost always bored face broke into an amused smile. "She's still in the Sand. Thanks to you, she's been shying away from sweets. Saved me a lot of money because she always stops by the ice cream shop three to five times a day when she visits the village."

"Is that a bad thing? I really don't think she's fat."

"To her, it doesn't matter."

"Why? It was just a joke."

Shikamaru looked around, as if making sure no one was around to hear what he had to say. He gestured for Sai to come closer and whispered in his ear. "All girls think that all jokes are half-meant."

Sai straightened back up, bewildered. "Naruto said the same thing to me before. I didn't really quite get it."

"It's like joking about Sakura's large forehead, Sai. You just don't say it out loud."

"I like Sakura's forehead. It's smooth and blemish-free that it would make me want to touch her face." Sai had said it without batting an eyelash, and he was a bit surprised to see Shikamaru shrinking away from him.

"Man, don't tell me you're down on a crush or something."

"A crush? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Shikamaru looked like he wanted to take back what he said, because he knew that explaining things was going to be too troublesome. He shook his head. "It's nothing." And just about that time did a tall, willowy Kurenai exited the hospital with a bundle of something in her arms. Shikamaru was on his feet, and an umbrella that was leaning on the tree trunk was in his hands a moment later. He looked like he was about to leave until he looked over his shoulder.

"Are you busy this week?" Shikamaru asked him.

Sai scratched his head. "I don't have pending missions, if that's what you mean."

Shikamaru nodded and procured an envelope from his back pocket. "Here. Maybe you can use this more than I can, since Temari doesn't like outings like these anyway." And having handed the envelope to Sai, Shikamaru ran over to the waiting Kurenai, who waved at Sai when she saw he was not coming over to say hello.

Sai waved back, but was instantly distracted by what was inside the envelope. Careful not to get it wet in the rain, he opened the envelope with careful fingers and his eyes narrowed at the thin, semi-hard cards that came out of it. They were gift cards for a three-day stay in a Hot Spring Hotel in the nearby Onsen Village.

For two.

"Whatcha have there, tiger?"

Sai twisted around to see Ino Yamanaka looking over his shoulder slyly, an umbrella resting on her right shoulder. He swallowed hard. No wonder Shikamaru thought women were a pain. He had always thought that Ino was one of the most difficult to understand, especially when it came to Sakura. The people around them claimed they were friends, but majority of the time they were in each others' throats.

Of course, Ino in herself, was enough of a mystery to him. While Sakura dressed quite modestly, as do Hinata and Tenten, Ino had a certain taste in clothes that Sai could not quite understand. According to what he, as well as Master Jiraiya, had observed with the opposite sex, women do not enjoy being seen naked. But if so, then why was Ino wearing something so skimpy everyday? She was deviating from what Sai had thought girls ought to be. And it confused the heck out of him so much that being around Ino made him nervous.

Sai quickly tried to hide the gift cards into the envelope, but Ino was too quick for him. She had swiped the things from his hands in a second and was reading them shamelessly. Sai plastered a dead look on his face and extended his hand to the girl. "Give it here."

Ino snickered as she waved the envelope in front of Sai's face. "A three-day stay in a hot spring bath house. For two, I see. Where did you get these?"

Sai tried to snatch the envelope back, and Ino let him. "Shikamaru gave them to me. He said he doesn't need them."

"That's Shikamaru for you. So," Ino tilted her head to the right, her long blond hair waving behind her like a tail. "Who are you planning to take with you?"

Sai could only stare at her. "I haven't thought of that yet."

Ino giggled. "Take me!" And she grabbed at his arm, making Sai almost lose his balance. "I won't mind washing your back, even if you're as exciting at a corpse."

This made Sai look down at her curiously. "Would you like to go together?"

Ino stared back at him, the sly look in her eyes melting into frustration. She let go of his arm. "Can't anyone in Team Seven take a joke? I was kidding, Sai."

Sai continued to examine her. "Aren't all jokes half-meant?"

Ino blushed, but she shook her head. "It was a poor attempt at making conversation, Sai. I just wanted to ask how you were."

Sai scratched his head. This was why he hated being around Ino. She never gave a straight answer. "I'm fine."

Ino smiled and started to back away. "Well, I'll see you around then. I'm just here to pick up some ointment for my bruises." When Ino raised her arm to wave at him, he noticed her hands were bandaged.

"What happened to you?"

And as usual, Ino wouldn't say. She smiled at him, eyes closing pleasantly. "Sakura loves hot springs. She'll be glad to go with you if you ask her persistently enough. But I'm sure you already knew that, yes?" And she left running inside the hospital, not even bothering to use her umbrella.

Sai did not know what to say, but he felt his face growing warm for a reason he did not know. He needed to ask Sakura what it was.

* * *

Getting into warm clothes after two days in the rain made Sakura smile contentedly. After unpacking her wet supplies on the floor, leaving them uncaringly under the dining table, she proceeded to the stove and began to boil water to make tea. Tying her hair back in a lose bun, she looked out the window of her sink that overlooked her backyard as she scooped up crushed tea leaves into her small teapot. It was still raining outside, and Sakura sighed. She wondered how Naruto was doing with Hinata, and how Sai was doing with the boy. She cursed herself for not asking Tsunade about him when she had the chance. Instead, she had wasted the Hokage's precious time with her immature ranting of past-loves that mattered little to her Master.

She gasped when she saw a blur of orange zoom past her window, and a few seconds later, Naruto was barging into her house without permission. She was used to this, however, and she turned around to see Naruto taking his shoes off by the entrance and hanging his cloak by the peg behind the door.

Sakura leaned on the sink, crossing her arms over her chest. "How's Hinata?"

At the mention of the name, Naruto's face turned as red as a tomato, and he decided to avoid the subject. "I was looking for you and Sai in Granny's tower but both of you had left."

"She dismissed us right after the report," Sakura explained. She gestured for Naruto to have a seat on the table, and the blonde complied. "I was just about to make some tea. Join me?"

Naruto grinned toothily. "Thanks." With this he took his place on one of the chairs and looked like he was going to explode from shaking too much.

"Excuse me for asking, but are you… giddy?"

Naruto winced at her for noticing something so obvious, but he slammed his hands on her table and blurted out. "I don't know how to be a boyfriend, Sakura!"

The confession made Sakura nearly drop to the floor. "You came all the way here to tell me that?" The water started boiling and she killed the fire. "What happened to Hinata?"

Naruto uncomfortably started to pull at his hair. "I went to the Hyuuga Manor, right? And Kiba and Shino were already taking her to her room, and I had wanted to talk to her, but then her _dad_ asks me what I wanted and what business did I have with Hinata. How was I supposed to tell her parents that… that…"

Sakura poured the hot water into the teapot. "Were you able to talk to Hinata?"

"Had Tenten not come along, I wouldn't have been able to see Hinata and – "

"Wait a minute… _Tenten _was in the Hyuuga Manor? Why was Tenten in the Hyuuga Manor?"

Naruto shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? Probably sparring with Neji?" he asked irritably. "She was just there, and she told Hinata's dad that I was a part of the team mission Hinata's been working on and so he let me in." He paused to accept the teacup Sakura offered him. "Thanks. But anyway, I finally made it to her room, but when I did, I didn't know what to say to her. And she was just there, sitting on her bed. And this time she looked like she was really expecting me to say something. But I didn't know what to do."

Sakura sat down on the table across him. "What _did _you do in the end?"

"I ran away."

"You _what?_"

"It was making me uncomfortable, what with everyone there! I wish they'd just left us alone."

Sakura sniffed. "As if they'd leave a boy in the Hyuuga Heiress' room alone with her." Naruto visibly had the wind knocked out of him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. Why didn't you ask them to leave you two alone then?"

"I… don't know."

Sakura sighed after sipping her tea. "Naruto, the mission is over, and if my memory serves me right, your training starts after the mission is done. You're going back to Master Fukasaka anytime soon. You can't leave without talking to Hinata."

"I know, I know. Sheesh!" Naruto drained his tea in one gulp, fixed the collar of his jacket self-consciously. "I'm going back to the Manor then."

Sakura smiled as she watched Naruto put on his shoes in a hurry. "Go get her."

Naruto gave her a small salute. "I'm off then!" and he was gone out the door in a flash, his coat completely forgotten on the peg.

Sakura could only giggle as she picked up Naruto's teacup and deposited it in the sink. With Sai finally opening up to emotions, however bad he was still doing at it, and Naruto exploring new territory with his first-ever girlfriend, she could not help but feel like her boys were growing up.

She looked up when she heard her door open once again. Thinking it was Naruto back to pick up his forgotten cloak, she was surprised to see Sai, still in his wet ANBU uniform. His things from the mission still strapped on his back, as if he did not even go home to rest since they got back to the village.

"Hello," was his greeting. "Can I come in?"

Sakura, surprised at his arrival, gestured to the table. "Is tea fine?"

Sai nodded, removing his shoes by the entrance, just as Naruto had, but he did not even bother to hang his coat, nor did he even deposit his things on the floor, as if he had completely forgotten he was carrying them. He sat down stiffly on the chair Naruto had sat in earlier.

"You're soaking wet. You should have at least changed before you dropped by or you'll catch cold." She gently placed a teacup in front of Sai, which he looked at curiously, as if teacups were rare. Planting her arms behind the chair in front of her, she looked down at Sai's flat expression as he took out an envelope from his pocket, tea ignored.

"I came here to ask you." He slipped the small piece of paper he had plucked from the envelope. "If you'd like to go out with me."

Sakura blinked at him. "What?"

"I received gift cards for a three-day stay in a Hot Spring Hotel at the Onsen Village near here. And I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me." His face betrayed nothing, _nothing at all_.

Sakura retreated from the table as if burned. "You and me? Like, as a date?"

Sai, whose eyes were half closed as he waited for a reply from her, slightly opened as he looked at her shocked face. "Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?"

Biting her lip, guilty for having overreacted at Sai's invitation, she stepped forward and fingered the gift card, a little embarrassed. She should know better than to think Sai was up to things a normal boy would. After all, they had spent time naked and slept together like so, and Sai had been a perfect gentleman then.

"If you have other things to do, you don't have to force yourself into it," Sai said, smiling his fake smile.

Sakura could not help but sigh in resignation. "If the Hokage doesn't have anything to ask of me, I might."

Sai's bland smile got wider. "I already asked her. She said yes."

Sakura felt a vein pop on her forehead. "Wait a minute. You asked my Master if you could take me away for three days. And she said _yes_?"

Sai nodded. "Actually, her exact words were; _'Oh, by all means! I give you my blessing!'_ "

Sakura felt her head ache suddenly. She pressed a finger to her temple. "What about the boy in the hospital? Who's going to escort him home?"

"Ino Yamanaka volunteered to do it. Along with Shikamaru Nara."

"Ino _volunteered?_" it sounded too suspicious for all that it's worth. She still looked at him doubtfully, until Sai's hand shot out and grabbed her wrist roughly with his left hand, and in one swift move, pulled her to him.

"What the – ! What are you doing, Sai!" Sakura demanded.

Sai raised his free hand in front of his face. "Let's go." And with a quick hand sign, a whirl of white smoke, and a short scream from Sakura, they were gone.

* * *

_**Okay, so this was a bit long. XD Sorry about that. But anyway, now that I've gotten Naruto and Hinata to go out, I'm completely happy. And there was a little hint on Tenten being in the Hyuuga Manor. Gasp! **_

_**I for one, love Naruto, and his constant slow thinking is one of the things I love about him. (Like when Kakashi was trying to teach him how to incorporate wind element to his Rasengan, and he said "Explain as simple as you can, please!" or how Gamakichi explained to Naruto how Natural Energy works by making an example of a choco-vanilla ice cream swirl tasting better with a swirl of mint in it. XD) I may have overdone it, but he looks so adorable being slow like that. Heehee! Weird pet peeve!**_

_**Anyway, thank you again for the reviews! You all get Hinata plushies!**_

_**Oh! Btw, are you guys having problems with your story traffic menu? Coz mine's just completely broke…. =( What's up with that, eh?**_

_**Re...view...? Yes? XD**_


	9. Chapter 9: Pride

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

* * *

In the years she had known him, Ino Yamanaka had never dreamed of having Shikamaru Nara marry before she did.

Scratch that.

She had never dreamed he would be able to _find_ a partner before shedid. But as she walked behind him, a very silent boy riding on his back, she actually thought he looked to be a promising father.

"So, how are the flowers going?" Shikamaru asked at an attempt to shatter the silence between them as they made their way out of the hospital. "Temari could be a pain with detail. I hope she isn't giving you too much of a hard time."

Ino unconsciously hid her hands in her pockets. "I'm having a fun time, actually. I'm looking forward to designing her veil. I was hoping to put tulips on it, but she insisted on roses for her bouquet, so…" She shrugged. "I can manage."

Shikamaru barely looked over his shoulder at her. "You can always say no if you don't want to do it, you know."

Ino rubbed her nose with the back of her hand. "You only get married once, Shika-poo."

Shikamaru made a face. "Don't call me that."

Ino fell into step with the Chuunin, peered up into his face. "Say, what does Temari call you when you're alone together?"

Ino couldn't have thought of it possible, but Shikamaru blushed as he looked away. "I feel no responsibility to answer that."

"Aw, come on. It's not like it's going to kill you if I knew."

"She calls him Shika-bear," said a voice from behind them.

Ino whirled around to see Chouji Akimichi sitting on one of the benches in the Hospital Lobby, in his hand was a half-eaten candy bar. Chouji was probably one of the nicest people Ino had ever gotten acquainted to. Because he loved food, and denied himself absolutely nothing, he was rather round and pudgy. The brown-haired boy would not admit it, though, and Ino had known better than to say it in his face.

"How'd you know she calls me Shika-bear?" Shikamaru asked, horror-struck, as he lowered the boy, who looked up at him, right next to Chouji.

"I was behind the ice cream shop when she asked you to buy her a Two-Scooper Mint Chocolate." Chouji grinned from ear to ear after taking a bite of his candy-bar.

Ino laughed gaily, clapping her hands in delight. "She calls you Shika-bear? Ohh, I'm gonna remember that till _my _wedding day."

Shikamaru only wrinkled his nose testily. That was what Ino hated the most about her teammate; he just did not give her the satisfaction of _getting_ annoyed when she _tried_ to annoy him. Right now, he just got on his knees in front of the boy and started talking to him in hushed whispers.

Seeing no fun in poking at his pet-name, Ino turned to Chouji. "What brings you here in the hospital?"

Chouji gestured to his left arm where a small bandage was. "Gave blood today. You should give blood, too, sometimes."

Ino could not help but crack a grin. "Maybe later. Chouji." With this, she returned her gaze at Shikamaru, who had now ushered the boy into the room where a nurse was waiting for him. "By the way, why did you give Sai your honeymoon gift cards?"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh, my God. Don't tell me he asked you."

Ino could only laugh. "I would have gone, but the Lady Tsunade would have killed me if I did." She nibbled the nail on her pinky finger. "But I wouldn't mind seeing the rest of that hard body."

"You disgust me."

"I was kidding! Sheesh! I've seen his abs almost everyday for the last two years and the only thing that's crossed my mind is why he never tried to get a tan."

* * *

Sakura was never a patient girl. Nope. In fact, she was very impatient. That, and very intolerant. And her situation right now was only feeding more wood into her fire.

And what was worse was she did not have her shoes on.

Stupid Sai had decided to abduct her from her living room without even bothering to check if they did not forget anything. And in the end, as they stood near the main entrance of Onsen Village, both of them barefooted, Sakura could only grab Sai by the scruff of his wet collar and pull him closer to her.

"I didn't mean we could leave now!" she seethed between her teeth.

It took Sai a few seconds to respond. "I apologize." And he smiled at her. She wanted to smash his face in.

She needed to calm down. This was no place to murder Sai, what with public eyes looking at them from all directions. Luckily, the rain had decided to calm down into a drizzle. At least she did not have to get soaked again.

Onsen Village was mainly that, a Village of bath houses. Sitting at the base of a mountain, there were easily about two dozen hot springs in the vicinity. Sakura and Sai had stayed in this village once when the new Team Kakashi went off to its first mission. She had been with Naruto and Captain Yamato then. She had enjoyed their stay then, however short it had been, and Sai and Naruto in each others' throats majority of the time. She had thought of coming back, using one of her days-off, but never in a million years did she think she would be coming back with Sai, of all people.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and started counting from ten backwards. _Ten… nine… eight… sev – Whoa!_

Hey eyes popped open when Sai had suddenly took her into his arms like a sack of potatoes, hooking one of his hands behind her knees, another around her waist. "Now what do you have in mind? Put me down! This is embarrassing!"

Sai, a dead-serious expression on his face, only shook his head as he looked not at her face, but at her feet. "We don't want to blister your toes."

Sakura winced, but nonetheless allowed him to carry her. It was, after all, _his_ fault that she did not have shoes on. She crossed her arms over her stomach and tried to ignore the stares that came from the people around them. If Tsunade hears some weird scandal, she could easily point everything at Sai.

"The one we are looking for is called the Tsuruga Bath House. Do you know where that is?" Sai asked her, looking around the premises. When Sakura said she did not, Sai shamelessly started walking into every hotel that came their way to ask if that was the Tsuruga Bath House, Sakura still in his arms.

While some of the staff of those hotels simply said no and sent them away with snickers, one was kind enough to lead them to the very edge of the mountain to a bath house that was separated from the rest of the village by a small moat, and the only means to get to there was a tiny ferry with a weird old man stirring it. The Bath House itself was hardly seen from behind the tall Willow trees surrounding the moat.

Sakura beat Sai into putting her down, and she dropped on her feet beside him. This seemed to have caught the old man's attention. He jerked from where he was sitting (he was apparently asleep on his watch) and waved to them. "'Ello der! 'Ulcome to Tsuruga Bath 'ouse. My name be Fred. Shall I takes you lovebirds across?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow and subconsciously adjusted her blouse.

Sai blinked at the old man. "You talk funny."

Sakura's hand snapped and she had Sai by the ear in a second. "Take us across, please."

"O'righty! Hop on."

Sai tried to show the old man, Fred, their Reservation Gift Cards, but the man simply brushed them aside.

"Yeah, yeah I know. Rub it in me face, why dontcha? Damn lucky bastard to get married t 'a pink-haired fairy princess with no shoes… Rub it in me face, buddy! I got married twice already, an' none o' them were pretty pink-haired fairy princesses…" Fred rambled on and on, and Sakura was starting to believe that the old man was not… sane. She was more than happy to disembark the ferry and get away from Fred, who was now talking about fairies being real.

Sai opened his mouth to say something, but Sakura grabbed him again by the ear, and dragged him off, as far away from Fred as possible. She was starting to have negative thoughts about this trip, and was about to voice her thoughts to her companion when she saw the Bath House appear before her. Her jaw dropped.

"Sai?" Sakura asked as her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"Yes?"

"Where did you say you got those gift cards?"

"Shikamaru gave them to me. He said Temari doesn't like outings like these… Why?"

Sakura extended her hand to Sai. "Let me have a look at those cards for a minute."

Sai handed her the said cards.

Sakura ran her eyes over them, and groaned at what she saw. She shoved the cards back to Sai. "This is just great…"

The hotel that stood in front of them was made of old polished wood. Three-storey high buildings clustered around each other, their curved roofs where golden storks were perched swooped down elegantly over a rock garden in the middle of the buildings. Steam, obviously from the hot springs, floated in every direction, and the smell of sulfur was unmistakably present. The place was huge… And now she knew why…

"Is there anything wrong?" Sai asked as he, too, observed the Bath House indifferently.

Sakura rubbed her bare feet together self-consciously. "I think we just made a grave mistake coming here…"

But it was too late, as two ladies, most probably at their forties, donned in dark blue kimonos and white aprons, appeared from the entrance of the bath house and collected their gift cards from them.

The older of the two women smiled warmly at them and gave them a low, respectful bow. "Mr. and Mrs. Shikamaru Nara, welcome to Tsuruga Bath House."

Sakura felt the world tilt dangerously to the right, and she found Sai supporting her elbow as she foolishly teetered back, wanting to disappear then and there.

Sai tilted his head curiously. "Hn," was all he said.

* * *

Though Naruto had said to Sakura that she would be leaving for the Hyuuga Manor, he found himself jumping into Tsunade's office through the window and nearly colliding with said Hokage as she raised a dumpling to her mouth.

"I'm looking forward to the day when you stop raining into my office, boy." Tsunade settled on her seat without so much as turning one eye at Naruto, who had settled on sitting on the floor in front of her desk.

Naruto gave the lady, looking too young for her age, a searching look. Pursing his lips, his eyes once again narrowed into slits, like a cat.

Tsunade chewed on a dumpling uncaringly. "Your teammates have finished the report, thus giving you no purpose whatsoever to be here. Shouldn't you be stuffing your face with Ichiraku ramen? You know Master Fukusaka will be summoning you anytime soon."

Naruto, momentarily distracted, blinked. But he knew that there were matters better than Ichiraku right now. He was up on his feet in a second and had his palms planted flat on Tsunade's desk. "I need to ask you something."

Tsunade swallowed the dumpling, feeling it slide home. She sipped her tea. "If it's about Sasuke, no. There are no leads on his whereabouts."

Naruto flushed. "It's not that…"

"Then what is it? I'm in the middle of a dumpling break, and dumplings don't taste as good with you breathing down my neck."

Naruto bit his lips. If his mother were alive, he supposed it would be just as hard to ask, but the hell would he ask Kakashi Sensei about these things. He leaned forward. "What does a boyfriend have to do to keep his girlfriend happy?"

Tsunade choked on her tea.

Naruto was suddenly by her side, patting her back gently. "Aww, come on, Granny… Is it that too weird to ask an old lady like you about young stuff like this?"

That got him a smack on the head.

"God help your girlfriend, Naruto..."

* * *

The moon found Sakura looking out the private hot spring clad in her yukata, hair pulled back from her face, a piece of fruit sitting on her lap. Sai was on the other end of the hot spring, a towel perched on his head, and he was looking up into the sky, the lower half of his body submerged in the hot water.

Dinner had been wonderful, mostly seafood and vegetables. Sai had barely said a word over the food, but Sakura saw him once or twice looking over her way as if torn between asking or not asking. She had left him alone then, and pigged out on the delectable feast laid out in front of her. She wondered how many pounds she was going to gain, eating this much food for three days.

When Sakura and Sai had been led to their "Honeymoon Suite" (Tatami-floored, minimalistic, and much to her horror, quite romantic), which Sakura thought to be divine, she was scandalized to know that they had to share a hot spring together. Sai, as usual unbothered by their situation, suggested that they didn't necessarily have to take a bath together, and settled on the decision to take baths in turns. As always, the perfect gentleman.

"I want to ask you something," came Sai's voice from his place in the far end of the water.

Sakura squinted at him. With the steam, he was barely visible to her. She took a bite of her fruit. Regardless of the misunderstanding of their marital status, Sakura was actually having fun. "So long as it's not about my eating habits."

Sakura heard him wade into the water lazily and she could see his shadow floating out of sight. "I was wondering… why you said yes when I asked you to come with me here."

Sakura frowned. "Why not? I like hot springs. A free reservation doesn't come along everyday."

"It's just that, I read in a book that girls don't usually accept sudden invitations that got them alone with the opposite sex unless they were committed." She heard faint splashes. "And I was actually expecting you to turn me down."

With this Sakura had to laugh. She swore, sometimes Sai was a pain, but his naiveté was genuine it was starting to be funny. "You and your books. Girls only turn invitations down when they know the guy who gave the invitation is a proven perv who can't keep their hands to themselves."

"Does that mean you trust me?"

Sakura chuckled again. "No. It means I do not see you capable of sexually harassing me. And even if you were, I doubt you would be any good."

The next thing that happened made Sakura instantly regret her words. One moment she was looking up into the sky, eating her fruit, and the next, she was pinned down on the tatami floor with a naked Sai on top of her. "Humans do not need emotions to proceed with the art of love-making, Sakura. It is a primal need, an animal instinct to reproduce. Though I still lack on the emotional department, you'd find me quite handy in bed. Would you like to give me a try?"

Sakura felt her face heat up, and had she not been too startled to think, she would have knocked Sai half-way across the universe with her punches. But there was something in his voice that made her want to listen. One of Sai's hands was resting on her hip, the other arm pressed against her collarbone to keep her down, hand near her face as if frozen in mid-stroke. She tried to get up but he was intent on pinning her down.

"Get off me. Now," she threatened dangerously.

With this, Sai frowned, got off her and sat on his hunches. "That's funny. Weren't you blown away by my sexual charms?"

Sakura gingerly sat up herself, her hand on her racing heart. She swore all the blood in her body was concentrated on her face. In that brief moment, she actually – actually! – thought Sai was sexy.

But she would rather die a long and painful death than admit it to him.

She scoffed. "And I suppose you read that in a book, too?"

His answer nearly had her reeling. "Actually, yes. Do you know the book _Icha-Icha Tactics _Kakashi Sensei always carries around with him? For some reason, he lent it to me. And the hero was portrayed to be an aggressive man who got his way with women. Kakashi Sensei said that most women love dominant men when it comes to making love." Now he looked really confused. "But you didn't look too happy… so could the book be wrong?"

Sakura merely looked at him for the longest possible time, then threw him his Yukata that was neatly folded a few feet from her. "You, Sai, are a jerk."

More confusion. "Why?" He pulled his yukata on.

"Only jerks push themselves on women without even thinking about their feelings. Women who don't have a certain attraction to men, whether it be deep or shallow, do not engage in… sex… " she blushed at her own explanation.

With this, Sakura thought the conversation would be over, but she was mistaken.

Because Sai asked her a question that made her heart skip another beat. "Don't you think I'm attractive?"

…

The truth was, she did…

How many times had she compared him to Sasuke? The way he talked, and his dark hair and eyes. The similarities were too uncanny to not notice. Sakura had wondered time and again, if Sasuke were as tall as Sai was. And if he still grew his hair long, flaring it behind his ears.

She felt a stinging sensation in her chest, and she turned away from Sai. "It's my turn to take a bath," she informed him softly, and made her way to the water. "Don't look, all right?"

The answer she got was a gentle opening and closing of the door when Sai left the room wordlessly, either to respect her privacy, or simply because she did not answer his question directly. Sakura closed her eyes, took off her yukata and jumped into the hot water uncaringly, feeling it wrap her body in a comfortably protective shell.

* * *

Sai had an open canvas in front of him, a piece of blue crayon in his right hand as he looked out into the rock garden opposite the hot springs where Sakura was taking her bath. His first day with her was turning out to be one of the most confusing ones he's ever had. It was like peeling an onion. He would be able to peel off one layer only to be stuck with another. But what made it more confusing was he felt like he was peeling _two _onions. And he had no idea as to why he thought so.

_Am I… unattractive to the opposite sex? Unattractive enough to be underestimated when it came to that...?_

He poised the crayon a few centimeters from the canvas, and was once again lost in thought. The extinguishing of the night torches in the rock garden made him snap back to his senses. It had been one and a half hours since he opened the canvas in front of him, and he could only grimly look at it. He did not get one single inspiration to draw that night. Tucking his materials under his arm, he got up and proceeded to enter the room he was going to share with Sakura, only to find the pink-haired girl sitting on the edge of the springs, the lower half of her yukata soaked, her hair dripping wet, and in her hands was something – something – that Sai, by all means, thought she should not be eating.

When they were led into their room, they were presented with three boxes of Fire Whiskey Chocolates, compliments of the management of the Bath House. And much to Sai's displeasure, she was already halfway through her third box.

Dropping his art materials carelessly on the tatami floor, he picked up one of the discarded boxes of the said chocolates and chewed on his lower lip thoughtfully. Forty percent alcohol… the girl could as well have drunk five bottles of rice wine after eating that much chocolate…

"Is that you, Sas – Sai?" Sakura whirled around, throwing one of her legs over the rocks, splashing water everywhere.

"I think we've had enough of this, don't you think?" Sai tried to snatch the box of chocolates from her, but she pulled it away from him. She nearly fell back into the water had Sai not grabbed her arm and pulled her back to safety.

The act of chivalry was left unnoticed. She snapped her arm back and wrapped it around the box of chocolates protectively. "Why is it…_ why is it _that when I start to like something, life always wants to take it away from me?"

Sai, having absolutely no idea what she was talking about, took another chance at taking the chocolates away from her. "You are drunk from too much alcohol and sugar. I think we should put this away."

"NO!" Sakura lashed out at him blindly. Sai caught her wrist, reached his long arm over her shoulder and succeeded in plucking the chocolates from her. He slid it over the tatami floor, out of reach.

That was when she lost it. She turned to him angrily. "Is it too wrong to take what you want, Sai?"

Sai adjusted his yukata around him, and sat down comfortably in front of her. "No. Unless that something belongs to someone else. Then, that would be stealing."

She wiped at tears that did not fall. "He was never mine, he was no one's. And I had loved him the moment I saw him… " she extended her arms pleadingly to him. "I heard a rumor that he liked girls with long hair, and so I grew mine. I chased after his standards, tried my best, and nearly got there. But I was never enough. He had to leave. And I tried to stop him, but I was too weak… Just too weak."

Sai patiently listened to her drunken ranting, because he knew who she was talking about. He knew it too well. It was like Sasuke's ghost was always hanging around her. She seldom mentioned him, but he could almost _feel_ the rouge nin _haunting_ her wake when she was not busy, when she did not have anything better to think about.

"What I am now, I became _because _I wanted to bring him back. My strength was because of him. Everything was about him! With him gone, what am I going to be?" she gave a small hiccup, making Sai smile a bit.

He reached out to her, just how he had reached for her desperately in that raging river. "You will be Sakura. No more, no less. And that in itself is a task."

She looked at him doubtfully, but nonetheless took his hand. Sai gently took off her wet yukata, careful not to look at her body unless necessary, slipped his yukata of his own shoulders and wrapped her in it. Thankfully, he had his shorts on. "You should have known better than to take a bath with your clothes on." He scooped her up into his arms again, took her to the next room where the maids had prepared two futons for them.

Sakura drowsily blinked her eyes as Sai put her down on one of the futons. That was when she took notice of his bare arm where the ANBU symbol was tattooed on his pale skin. She traced it with one shaky finger. She smiled. "Tattoos are cool, huh? I'd like to have a tattoo someday. Maybe of a butterfly. Or a dragon…"

Sai watched as she giggled at the randomness of what she said. He looked over the dresser not too far away, reached for one of his palettes and paintbrushes. He turned back to her. "A butterfly would suit you fine, I think."

She beamed at him after giving another hiccup.

"Where would you like it?"

Sakura lazily traced his tattoo again. "Right where yours is. Yeah, it would look cool on my arm…"

Sai watched as she rolled on her side. Shaking his head ruefully, he sat down on her futon, leaned his back against the wall. He was supposed to pull Sakura towards him, until she suddenly slumped her head on his lap.

"I changed my mind. I'd love it on my shoulder… On the left one… no, on the right… " She stifled a yawn, and then stopped moving.

Sai stared at her pink head in wonder. Who was this vulnerable creature in front of him? He had seen so many faces of Sakura but this has got to be the weakest yet. It was not as if he did not value this side of her. But it just made him even more confused than necessary.

Did love make humans this weak? Was bringing back Sasuke that worth it for this girl? He wondered...

With steady fingers, he gently brushed Sakura's yukata off of her shoulder, in this case, the right one, dipped his brush in dark red ink and started to draw her request of a butterfly. It was probably going to wash away when she took a bath again tomorrow, but somehow, painting something on her skin was so alluringly tempting that he could not help himself.

He glanced at her toes peeking from under her blankets, smiled, then concentrated on her shoulder.

* * *

_**Meh, I had wanted it to be a bit more romantic, but I guess nothing could be more unromantic than a drunk Sakura and a still emotionally-invalid Sai… XD**_

_**Once in a while, you'd notice snippets of other characters in between Sai and Sakura moments. This is for plot development later, by the way. You might not really like them, but I just love every single character in Naruto. Except Sasuke, maybe. Well, I don't really HATE him. Hate is such a strong word. I just really, really dislike him. LOL. Sooo sorry, Sasuke fans. Unless he shows something worth liking in Shippuuden, I stand my ground. **_

_**Thank you so much for the reviews and faves! XD I see you are enjoying your Hinata plushies! If you put her on your shoulder, she automatically vomits all over you! Give it a try!.**_

_**Review for this chapter, too? Yes? You know I love you all. XD**_

_**Please? – makes heart shape with fingers -**_


	10. Chapter 10: Jealousy

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden. I do not know what Sakura's parents' names are. The names I used in this chapter are purely out of my imagination. And… I do not know for a fact if Sai really hates beans. XD**_

* * *

Tsunade allowed herself to wave at a smiling Naruto, who vanished outside her office window, lugging a bouquet of bright-yellow tulips. When the blonde was gone, she then let herself to stare bleakly at the ten folders spread out in front of her. Shizune was standing a few feet away from her, quite unsure why the Hokage had suddenly wanted these files out of the blue.

The golden-haired woman flipped through one of the folders labeled _'Sasuke Uchiha'_, slipped it into her desk drawer thoughtlessly and stared at the remaining nine.

"So," Tsunade asked as she flourished her hands at the folders in front of her. "What do you think?"

Shizune was lost. "I don't think I get the question, my Lady."

Tsunade tapped a sharp red nail on the desk. "Here are the files of one of the most promising batches ever to rise in the Leaf since the Second Shinobi Wars. Though in the generation during and after that, there were… _geniuses_ … that stood out – Minato Namikaze, Jiraiya, Orochimaru," (She was too modest to say her name out loud) " – the fame was never shared equally, the talent never balanced each other out as much as this batch. And if not the talent, at the very least their personalities stand out." She plucked three folders from the stack, _'Kiba Inuzuka', 'Hinata Hyuuga', 'Shino Aburame'_, examined them with narrowed eyes. "Within the course of five years, from the moment they graduated from the Academy, with the exception of Neji Hyuuga, we've produced a jounin, seven chuunin and…" she threw the three folders she had picked up earlier, then grabbed the folder with _'Naruto Uzumaki'_ in bold letters printed on it. "… the village idiot."

Shizune felt her forehead bead with sweat. "Well, Naruto _has _improved a lot…"

"I'm not saying he didn't. But he is still a _genin_. Which is just sad. Too sad."

"Is this talk all about Naruto Uzumaki, then?"

Tsunade opened her mouth as if to say something, closed it, dropped the folder back on her desk. "No. I'm sorry, Shizune. Can you go get me some tea?"

Shizune stared at her Master suspiciously. "Are you sure?"

Tsunade closed her eyes, slammed her forehead on her desk fiercely. "Rice wine. Warm rice wine."

Shizune was gone and back in a span of three minutes, as if she knew the degree of need her Master was of alcohol.

Tsunade took a small swig of the nice and warm _sake_ as she picked up Shikamaru's folder. "As the Hokage, like my forefathers, I dream of seeing the future of the Leaf. Shikamaru Nara was a surprise. I wasn't expecting him to get married until he was on in deathbed."

Shizune started to arrange the folders into one neat pile. "My Lady. You're tired. Why not have lunch with me at the nearest Izakaya, and maybe – "

"One of these days, Shizune, you and I, Kakashi, Gai, we're going to grow older, and this village will have to be entrusted to these people." She gave the neatly piled folders a jab. "God, Shizune! We're going to hand down the village to Power-training little misfits who only care of becoming stronger and stronger!" Tsunade plucked a very abused-looking piece of paper from the stack of very abused-looking papers on the floor. "The village's birth rate had dropped a whopping thirty-three percent because women and men alike want to become shinobi who do nothing but train!"

Shizune slightly backed away from Tsunade, raising an arm in front of her face to protect herself. "But my Lady… it's for the village's own good to have strong ninja to do missions and safeguard our defense against – "

Tsunade raised a hand to silence her. "At the rate we're going, when this batch reaches their forties, there wouldn't be new shinobi to teach because aside from their own level of fighting, _no one is concerned if they have children in the near future or not_."

Shizune blinked several times. "Wh – what would you have them do? Make babies?"

Tsunade stared at her with dilated pupils. She took a few deep breaths, leaned back on her chair, and sipped her sake. "If I had my way, you know I'd make them."

"That's just… disturbing… My Lady…"

Tsunade stared at Shizune pointedly, and after a while asked, "How come you never got married, Shizune? You're pretty. Very talented. Your hips look like they're good enough for child birth…"

Shizune, face paling as if the Hokage had said something lewd to her, shook her head. "I was dedicated to my profession… I had wanted to be your apprentice, and be good at my job… Why are you asking me all this, Lady Tsunade? It's making me uncomfortable…"

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at her protégé. "I see the pattern in this. Me, you, Sakura… I hope that kid doesn't end up dying a spinster like me… Or you."

Shizune didn't know how to take that last comment, so she decided to leave.

* * *

The second day of their stay in the bath house started as uneventful as breakfast brought to their rooms at around seven in the morning. Sakura had pretty much slept through the preparations like a rock. She had drifted in and out of sleep, and fluttering her eyes open once in a while revealed that Sai had not left her side the whole night. She would see him sometimes sitting up against the wall, staring at his hands, sometimes sitting at the open sliding rice paper doors that overlooked the dark rock garden. In some occasions, she saw him poised as if to draw something on an open canvas, but his hands were not moving, and on his face was a deadpanned expression that would have come natural to him, had he not been frowning uncharacteristically. When the maids had finished bringing in their breakfast on two low tables, Sai had merely dismissed them, and he did not move to touch the food. Sakura had willed herself to get up then, but her head seemed too full, and her body too heavy that all she could do was grunt, roll over and hurry back to dreamland, only to wake up again a few moments later to find Sai brushing a lock of hair from her forehead. She blinked groggily and when she opened her eyes, the dark-haired boy was gone.

The sudden absence of her companion made her sit up gingerly, and she squinted in the sunlight that was pouring in from the window just at the right angle to hit her directly in her emerald eyes. She instantly looked over her shoulder and found her reflection looking back at her from the mirror on the low dresser to her left.

She blinked.

On her right shoulder, just between the slope of her neck and her armpit, was a beautiful painting of a butterfly in hues of reds and oranges, the lower parts of its wings trailed down to her arm, swirling elegantly in wispy fine strokes. She could not help but admire the work of art a few minutes longer than necessary before she covered her shoulder up with her yukata and once again searched the room for the former ROOT member. If Sai had decided to make a canvas out of her, she could not remember giving him permission.

It turned out that Sai had decided to take a bath in the springs again, proven a minute later when he came back in the room in a fresh bathrobe, rubbing a white towel on his dripping wet hair.

"Breakfast is ready," he announced blandly when he saw she was awake.

"It's illegal to be this energetic this early in the morning unless one has a mission," Sakura retorted grouchily, holding her head as it began to throb when she tried to get up.

"I asked the maids to bring in hot coffee instead of tea. For your hang-over."

"Hang-over…?"

"For such a talented kunoichi, it's a wonder how you weren't able to distinguish alcohol disguised as chocolate treats. You ate the Fire Whiskey Chocolates like a greedy little hamster eating nuts."

The statement made Sakura pull a face at him and wondered why he kept on comparing her to furry animals. Finally convincing herself that trying to understand Sai's way of thinking at this early hour was impossible, she crawled over to one of the low tables sitting neatly adjacent to the other, and sat on the mattress strategically placed next to it. Sai folded the towel he was using to dry his hair, gently placing it on a low chair near the dresser, and sat on the other mattress across Sakura.

Although the food laid in front of her would normally make her smile in appreciation – a warm bowl of rice, miso soup and grilled salmon, steamed vegetables and the cup of coffee Sai was talking about earlier – Sakura could only sigh as she snapped her chopsticks apart and started sipping her soup while casting sideway glances at the futon that looked so appealing to slip back into. She was pulled back to her meal when she saw several beans roll on the plate that held her salmon. She looked up and saw Sai in the middle of dropping more beans into her plate.

Sai gave her an unemotional glance, shrugged indifferently and started eating what was left of his steamed vegetables. When Sakura would not stop looking at him, he asked, "What?"

Sakura jabbed the beans crowding her salmon. "You don't like steamed beans?"

Sai stared at said things. "I prefer not to eat them."

"Are you allergic?"

"I don't like the aftertaste."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at him warily. She hadn't really heard that beans left an aftertaste in your mouth, but she ate the beans for him anyway. After that, they fell into wordless agreement on eating in silence.

Sakura could not remember what had happened last night after Sai had tried to experiment on her what he had learned from Master Jiraiya's _Icha-Icha Tactics_. The memory made her face heat up, and she stole a glance at the boy in front of her. He had finished his bowl of rice and was now intent on sipping his coffee contentedly, his straight bangs slightly falling into those flat, glassy eyes. When those eyes saw her watching him, she instantly looked away. And that was probably the last time that morning she and Sai had a conversation. Sakura had begrudgingly jumped back into her futon, and Sai had planted himself in the far wall looking at his feet for some reason. The last she saw of him before she nodded off was him wiggling his toes curiously.

She woke up at around noon, her head feeling a bit better but her body feeling no lighter than it was that morning. Getting up for a toilet break, she discovered lunch had already been served, and Sai seemed to have eaten already without waiting for her to wake up. Much to her annoyance, steamed beans were piled unceremoniously on her rice bowl. She ate them without complaining and shouted out loudly to no one in particular that not eating their vegetables is not good.

When no one responded, it was then did she finally realize that Sai was not in the premises. After finishing her lunch, she was tempted to set out searching for him when she felt something move slightly from inside the sleeve of her yukata. Being slightly ticklish, she gasped as the red and orange butterfly tattoo fluttered in front of her face, perched slightly on her nose, then darted out of the sliding doors leading to the rock garden.

If this was one of Sai's ideas of a prank, she hoped for his sake that he hid well enough or she will drown him in the springs later. Slightly in a bad mood, she put on a new yukata, grabbed the _happi_ bearing the Tsuruga crest hanging on the coat stand, and put it on. The butterfly was nowhere to be seen, and so she figured it would be better if she searched for Sai herself.

"Excuse me," Sakura said as she made her way to the front desk, where the woman who welcomed them yesterday was sitting on a low chair with a newspaper opened in front of her behind the counter.

The woman looked up, smiled. "Good day to you, Ma'am. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Sakura nodded. "I'm looking for the guy I came with. He's about this tall – " she raised her hand about a head over hers. "Short black hair, very pale, pretty much nothing going on in his eyes… "

"You mean your husband, yes?" the woman asked skeptically.

Sakura paused, remembered that they came here as a married couple, giggled and waved a hand in front of her face, feeling hot. "Yes, yes! My husband! Did he happen to step out of the Bath House?"

"Actually, yes, Mrs. Nara. He left the bath house about half an hour ago, saying he was going to walk around town."

Sakura gaped at her. "Without shoes on?"

The woman gestured at the shelf by the entrance. "We have _geta_ slippers available for stay-in guests. Feel free to use them."

"Great. Thanks."

"Oh, and Mrs. Nara?"

"Huh."

"We're going to prepare dinner at around six in the evening. Will you and your husband be back by then?"

Sakura paused. "If I find him soon enough, yes." She slipped on her _geta_, and dashed out of the bath house hoping Sai did not insult anyone while she was not watching.

Apparently she was worried over nothing. He found him in front of a souvenir shop.

A girl on either side of him.

Sakura backed away behind a tree. She did not hear what the girls were saying to Sai, and Sai as always was not giving anything off with his body language, but she felt something tug at her gut most uncomfortably. Though she had already come into terms with Sai – like Sasuke – was good-looking, it was the first time she had seen Sai actually been approached by another girl. Well, back in the Leaf, she supposed she had seen it once or twice, or maybe more, girls' heads turn twice when Sai would walk down the market to get his art supplies. And hadn't the Ink Shop Owner's daughter been quite happy ever since Sai started coming back as a regular customer?

These were things that Sakura had partially known since Sai had been her teammate, but it had never really bothered her before.

She frowned. Who said anything about being bothered by this _now_?

The girl to Sai's left touched his forearm, and whispered something in his ear.

The orange and red butterfly Sai had painted on her shoulder fluttered by her cheek.

Sakura crushed the butterfly against the tree trunk, and it vanished in a splatter of red ink. After that, she stalked back to the bath house, telling to herself today did not bother her at all.

* * *

Women were probably created in this world for one reason, and that was to humble men from their high pedestals of power defined by the shinobi world into the lowly task of buying things to please them.

Sai was looking for shoes, and he had no idea how to start this duty people defined as _shopping_. And the two girls who had somehow attached themselves to him when he stayed lingering in front of a shop window were not helping. Of course getting rid of them was a cinch.

"_What are you looking for?"_

"_Shoes."_

"_Aww, that's so sweet. Who are they for?"_

"_My wife."_

They vanished almost as fast as they came.

When he was finally alone, the task did not take as long as he thought it would. He had decided on getting Sakura some comfortable-looking flat sandals, and while he was at it, got himself a pair, too. It didn't look like Sakura appreciated stepping out of the village without footwear.

And personally, Sai did not want her to bruise her tiny feet.

Sandals stuffed in a paper bag safely tucked under one arm, he made his way back to the bath house, almost got into a fight with ferry-guy Fred, and was slightly giddy to see Sakura, who did nothing but sleep half of their second day. He, however, found their room empty. Housekeeping had done its job, the remnants of lunch gone, the futon tucked away in the closet, new towels and new yukatas placed neatly on the dresser.

In the neatness, Sakura was nowhere to be found.

He decided to set off looking for her within the bath house. He spent several minutes owlishly peeking his way through the halls, the coffee shop, the gift shop and the ramen shop until he finally stumbled upon her in the Izakaya. No one could miss that bright shade of pink sitting on the bar counter, her back to the entrance.

Sitting next to Sakura was what looked like a very tipsy guy who was practically undressing her with his eyes.

Sai frowned. Some weird beast of an emotion started to lurch in his chest. It felt like an itch on his back that he couldn't quite reach, and then it started to hurt a bit after a while. He instantly classified this feeling as a _bad feeling_. In the span of almost a week of trying to master his emotions, he had deducted that _bad feelings_ were not healthy and should be rid of as soon as possible.

So he slowly made his way to the counter just in time to hear the guy say, "So are you alone tonight, my chickadee? What's your name?"

_What the heck is a chickadee?_

Sakura sized up the man with one emerald-green eye. He was obviously not a ninja. Probably a traveling merchant looking for something to do.

The man's inferiority still did not make Sai's _bad feeling_ go away. Taking a deep breath, he purposefully leaned his elbows on the bar counter right between Sakura and the guy. "There you are," he said to Sakura.

Sakura, he discovered, had a glass of something in her hand. He could only hope it was not anything alcoholic. She was now staring at him with one perfectly arched eyebrow. "You're back earlier than expected," she mused.

Still caught reeling at the degree of happiness that seeing her brought him, he dropped the paper bag containing their sandals in front of her. "I got you footwear. Does that please you?"

The man did not seem to like having someone interrupt his exploits. He clamped a hand on Sai's shoulder meanly. "You go find your own bitch, mister. I saw her first."

And that was when Sai felt his body move without thinking, grabbed the guy by the wrist holding his shoulder, making him wince in pain. "I think we have a slight misunderstanding here. This girl is _not_ a bitch, and she is most certainly not _your chickadee_, whatever a chickadee is." He bared his teeth with a frozen smile. "If you call her any other weird names again, I'll break your arm." His smile widened.

Of course, this was probably overkill for a civilian. But Sai didn't care. He felt quite content – yeah that was the emotion for it – as he watched the man scamper away from them without looking back.

Sakura was watching him with an amused look on her face. "Was that supposed to be an act of manly chivalry to impress women?"

Sai took his seat on the just vacated seat beside Sakura. "Were you impressed?"

Sakura wrinkled her nose and took a sip of her drink. "You know me better than that."

Sai grinned. "It wouldn't hurt to try. What are you drinking? It isn't anything that will make you sleep on me again like last night, right?"

"It's just Oolong tea."

"I see."

Sakura took this opportunity to examine him intently. Sai ignored her. Somehow, he could feel as if he was starting to understand Sakura a bit better with this trip. But it was easy to say that he did not like most of what he saw. After having mulled everything about last night in his head, he was nothing but confused about this girl's feelings. She had said that Sasuke was everything to her, and that she was what she was because of him. Was that even possible? How could anyone try to define themselves by someone else's existence?

He just did not quite understand. For someone like him, who had always thought that his existence was for the mission alone, he guessed it was just too early to understand something so complex. He wondered if – no, hoped he was going to understand things better after a month.

"Say," Sakura started, draining her glass of oolong tea and gesturing at him with a finger. "If you aren't doing anything later after dinner, I was hoping that maybe you can accompany me to look for some souvenirs. For my parents, and maybe for Naruto, too."

Sai perked up at the sound of the invitation. This was actually the first time he had heard Sakura talk about her family. It was probably a normal topic of a conversation between friends, but Sai had never really had such a conversation before. "I've never gone shopping for a friend's parents before. It should prove to be educational. Sure."

Sakura shook her head, waved at the waiter for another glass of tea, and ordered Sai one, too. "There's nothing educational about picking out a souvenir. You should get Naruto and Captain Yamato something while we're at it."

It took Sai a while before he nodded. "All right."

When their drinks arrived, Sai could only stare at it for a few moments before sipping it. "Why?"

Sakura looked over to him. "Why what?"

"Why should we bring home a souvenir? What is the purpose of one?"

Sakura smiled a small smile. It was one of those gestures she would give him when he asked something that normal people should understand. He didn't know if the gesture brought him a good feeling or a bad feeling. "It's purpose is to show a person that they are remembered, and that we wish they were here with us. But since they're not, we try to bring back a part of the experience through well-thought-of gifts."

Sai rolled that in his head, nodded and made a mental note to get Naruto something memorable. "I get it." He turned to Sakura. "So… Your parents… Have you thought what to get them?"

The mention of her parents' gifts made Sakura lean forward, twirling the ice in her glass. "My mother loves collecting small wooden trinkets, so I was hoping to get something to add to her collection."

"I saw a shop that has a lot of tiny objects displayed in it. We can take a look later after dinner."

Sakura nodded happily. "My dad would be easier to please. He just loves anything he can eat. So I was thinking of getting him some onsen buns. He'd love those."

Sai watched Sakura's happy face as she went on talking about what to give her parents. It was obvious she was having a _good feeling_ when she thought of them.

Her next question to him made him almost back away from her.

"Do you remember how your parents were?" she asked him, resting her chin on one hand and looked at him, interested.

Sai blinked. "I have no past memories. I don't think I have parents at all… "

Sakura snorted. "You can't _not _have parents, Sai! How do you think you were born? Mitosis?"

Sai blinked again. "I don't remember them… though I sort of wish I did."

That was a lie. He did not feel anything about the absence of his parents, or even the _fact _about their absence. Should he be unhappy that he did not have parents?

Sakura looked at him sadly. Sai wondered why she was sad. "I bet your parents were good-looking people."

"Why is that?"

Sakura's sad look instantly turned icy. "Why you narcissistic little slime… It's because you're good-looking. I bet you asked me that question because you wanted me to compliment you out loud."

Sai was now genuinely confused. "Huh." Then the idea hit him that perhaps saying that a person gets certain strong traits from their parents was a good compliment, he turned to Sakura cheerfully and said, "I bet your mother's cooking sucks, because yours does and – "

The next thing Sai remembered was waking up on the floor with a slightly bloody nose, Sakura nowhere to be found.

* * *

What Naruto thought weird about Hinata Hyuuga was that before the mission in the Mukagawa ravine, she was almost always in his peripheral vision; lurking behind tree trunks while he was training, sitting a few chairs away from him while he ate ramen at Ichiraku, and even almost always running across her when he went shopping for daily provisions in the market. But ever since they came back to the village, it was as if the girl was doing everything in her power not to be found.

Naruto sighed dejectedly, squatting on the balls of his feet right outside the bakery, slinging the bouquet of yellow tulips on his right shoulder. He had doubted why Granny Tsunade suggested flowers could appease a girl when he sincerely believed anything and anyone could be appeased with a single bowl of ramen.

A flash of long, straight, blue-black hair caught his attention. Much to his pleasure, he was saw Hinata step out of the bakery, a big brown paper bag in her arms containing something that smelled deliciously good.

"There you are!" Naruto exclaimed, jumping to his feet, startling Hinata and making her jump.

"Na-na-n-na-ruto…!" she stammered, arms wrapping around the paper bag as if her life depended on it. Shuffling her feet uncomfortably, looking at anything and everything but the boy standing a few feet away from her, she started to blush.

Naruto wrinkled his nose, rubbed it with the back of his hand and approached her slowly, afraid that she might take off. "I've been looking all over for you. I've been to your manor twice yesterday, but I couldn't get the courage to ask your dad about you."

"I was…. Uhm… busy…" Hinata said meekly, this time taking a small step back.

Naruto frowned. Sure, he was not the smartest person in the village, but he wasn't that slow not to catch up that Hinata looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but near him. "Busy doing what?" he asked suspiciously.

Hinata's eyes widened in panic. "Ah! I was… sleeping… "

"You were busy sleeping?"

Hinata's eyes started to dart from left to right, and at that moment Naruto could have sworn she was going to use the Byakugan just to look for any means of escape. And though contrary to what he thought, she did not use her technique, but instead whirled around on her heel and attempted to make a run for it. He decided that he did not want to allow her to get away. She had not taken but four strides away from him did Naruto's free hand snap forward and caught her by the sleeve of her zip-up jacket. Hinata squeaked nervously.

"Please don't run away. I've been all over the village trying to find you. And I don't have much time left…"

The last thing he said seemed to have hit a nerve in Hinata. Her shoulders, which were shaking earlier, sagged. "Are you… leaving… again?" she asked silently.

Naruto shrugged, uncomfortable. "To train, yeah." He was not used to talking to her like this, as if having learned of her feelings for him, and having said – though unconsciously – that he liked her too, had created some sort of wall between them. He hated this even more than having to deal with awkward moments when all she did was faint on him. But having her avoid him was something he did not want to get used to.

"Can I walk you home?" he asked uncertainly. He was not used to asking permission if they could walk together, either.

Hinata, still looking the other way, nodded her head vaguely after considering it for a few minutes.

That walk was probably the longest walk Naruto had ever had. It was as if they were walking in super slow motion, and Hinata kept her head lowered the whole time, arms still choking the paper bag. Naruto, deciding to respect her silence, had his hands thrown at the back of his head, the tulips dangling upside-down his back.

They did not talk the whole time until they finally reached the Hyuuga Manor, where Hinata ended up shuffling her feet more, face completely drawn to the ground.

Naruto rubbed his nose again, uncertain of what to do.

"Naruto – "

"Hinata – "

It was one of those times when they just had to make the situation more uncomfortable by speaking at the same time.

Naruto reached out his free hand to her. "When I come back from training, you won't run away again, will you? Because you hide too good, and I don't think I can keep up…"

That was when Hinata finally raised her eyes to meet his. She was still red in the face, but at least there was a ghost of a smile on her lips. "I'll… I'll be waiting until you get back." She placed her hands gingerly on Naruto's, fingers shaking.

And those words, for some unexplainable reason, made Naruto sigh in relief. "That's good to hear." He gripped her tiny hand in his rough, calloused one. "We need to have a long, long talk. But there would be more than enough time for that." He leaned forward, planted a feint kiss on her red hot cheeks, thrust the bouquet into her arms, and ran like hell before she saw him blushing like crazy.

* * *

The shelters provided for the squatters, Shikamaru discovered, was found inside a fairly large village merely a few hours away from the boarder crossing the Land of Rice Paddies. Now, Shikamaru was not into putting too much thought in coincidence, but being so near the Hidden Sound Village made him uncomfortable.

Eyeing the broad expanse of rice fields to the north, and then the huge clusters of low brick buildings and tall windmills to the north-west, Shikamaru shrugged, adjusted his hold on the boy, who he later found out came by the name of Kazu, sleeping on his back, and motioned for Ino and Chouji, who were resting under a tree.

Chouji, munching on huge quantities of sodium, stood up, brushed his lap of crumbs, then nodded. "So what's the name of the guy we're meeting?"

Ino followed suit, pulled her cloak down her front and set off towards the village. "His name's Yue Matsunaga, right?"

Shikamaru nodded. "According to the Hokage, Matsunaga will be waiting for us in the entrance of the village to relieve us of the boy." He looked over his shoulder silently. "I have to warn you, that this Yue Matsunaga is… different, and the Fifth told me to exercise… prudence."

Ino frowned. "What's wrong with him? Is he, like, bad-smelling?"

Shikamaru chewed on the inside of his mouth. "He's… uhm, you'll see for yourself."

And they did, with Ino barely maintaining a straight face, and Chouji suddenly stopped eating his potato chips.

Yue Matsunaga was a six-foot tall man, whose face was something no one could put an age to.

The bandages made sure of that.

He was wrapped in white and grey bandages around the face, with only one dark eye peeking through a hole that looked like it was poked open, and a mop of raven-black hair flaring over his head. A bit of scaly skin was exposed around the neck with a scarf meant to cover it up. Under his red and black robes were more bandages. And more bandages. And then some.

"I've been waiting for you to arrive," said Yue, his voice so strikingly deep that Shikamaru couldn't have possibly come from this almost decaying body. He would have backed away in haste had Kazu not scampered down his back in a hurry, nearly dropping his precious teddy bear in the process, and threw his arms around the tall mummy of a man.

_Who… is this guy?_

_

* * *

_

_**I can't resist not putting in a serious plot for this story. XD Just more story advancement here, but we'll see how this leads to Sai later on.**_

_**Anyway, thank you for the wait. There were some readers who actually PMed me, asking me when the next chapter will come up. I don't blame you, since I've updated the story every two or three days then. But you know how life is, where work gets in the way of everything. Please be patient with me. There are times when I'd be able to upload fast, and there are times when it would take a few weeks to do so. Of course, sending me cookies and chocolates will make the updates come faster.**_

_**Oh, and reviews. Yes, reviews make the updates flow like honey. XD**_


	11. Chapter 11: Love

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

* * *

As Sakura sat dumbly on her kitchen table surrounded by paper bags full of souvenirs, looking at nothing in particular, she thought, three days and two nights alone with Sai in a romantic Honeymoon bath house suite proved to her that something was definitely wrong with her. She had realized it when she and Sai came back from shopping for souvenirs in the gift shop in Onsen Village, because when Sai asked her while she was soaking in the springs if he could join her, she had said yes. It was just one of those moments when she didn't even catch herself thinking, and the next thing she knew, Sai was sitting a few feet away from her in the hot water, body submerged from the chin down, eyes closed and looking quite content.

But that was not the crazy part.

What surprised her more was the fact that she did not mind at all. Maybe it was because Sai did not look like he had asked to join her because he was being perverted, but because the boy seemed to honestly hunger for human interaction in whatever way Sakura would provide. While they were taking their silent bath together, the maids had come and prepared their dinner, once again in small, low tables in one of the rooms, and laid their futons in the other. They came and went without a word, as if to make sure that the _newly-weds_ were not disturbed in their romantic evening bath time.

Dinner had been partaken in silence as well. And once again, Sakura had thought this weird. While Sai usually had a bad habit on starting uncomfortable conversations, he had remained quite occupied with his fruit bowl while Sakura, without having to be asked to, had grabbed Sai's plate of vegetables, plucked the beans from them and ate them without a word.

They had brushed their teeth in silence, and slipped into their futons in silence, saying goodnight to each other before sleeping, and then saying good morning the moment they woke up the next day. The half-hour trip back to the village was also spent in quiet strides, with the scraping of their newly bought sandals on the slightly damp soil the only sound that was shared between them.

Sai, for some reason, had wanted to drop her home – perhaps it was to collect his shoes he had left on her doorstep before he had kidnapped her. So she had obliged. But it turned out that he only meant to carry her stuff for her. And without giving the shoes he left in her house a second glance, he started to close the door.

The final straw that had convinced Sakura there was something terribly wrong with her was when she had asked him if he would like to have lunch with her and her parents tomorrow.

The invitation had shocked Sai as much as it had Sakura, but the boy nodded, saying he was looking forward to it, all the while frowning as if he had swallowed something sour.

She should have withdrawn the invitation after seeing that reaction from him, but he left even before Sakura could utter a word.

Which brings her to the present, sitting like a fool on her kitchen table, wondering how her parents were going to react to her bringing home a boy to dine with them. Well, it was not like Sai was _just _a boy. He was a teammate. And hadn't she invited Naruto more than once to have a bite to eat at her parents' place?

Of course, as expected, her parents had loved Naruto. He was the son they never had, and Naruto had loved them in return, like the parents that he never knew. She doubted her mother and father were going to have a problem finding it in their hearts to accept Sai, however… weird… he could sound sometimes.

Sakura rested her head in one hand, somehow feeling a bit empty. Though she had spent majority of the time in silence with Sai, she found that having him not being silent together with her was quite unnerving. She wondered what he was doing right now. Probably painting, if he's unpacked. The guy had decided to buy Naruto something to eat as well. Much to Sakura's surprise, Sai got him an Onsen Village Soy Sauce Limited Edition Cup Ramen. The former ROOT member was getting to know Naruto quite well.

But the worse of the worst reason that led Sakura to assume that there really was something wrong when she had promised Sai something she knew she could never do in a million years. It had happened after knocking Sai down in the Izakaya, and they met again in their rooms.

Sai, probably hoping to make amends had said, _"One day, if there would ever be a chance, I'd appreciate it if you bake me a cake."_

Sakura had been too proud to decline._"I'll give it a try."_

_ "Promise?"_

_ "Sure."_

Sakura slammed her forehead on the table and groaned. Sai must then be looking forward to her cooking, thus the sour face when she invited him earlier.

* * *

The shelters stood in the outskirts of the village like a dilapidated ghost. Most of the tinted glass windows were either splattered with spider cracks or busted open altogether. The outside walls were painted a nasty green, as if it were to hide the disgusting moss taking over that side of the wall that received no sunlight.

Ino did not know what to think. She did not believe this could be a shelter for human beings. It was just too… unclean… Unsafe… And that was from seeing it from the outside. She did not think she needed to see what was _within_ to conclude why the squatters had insisted on going back to their ravine.

Yue Matsunaga, too, did not look like he was keen on letting them in. In fact, had Shikamaru not insisted on escorting them back to the shelters, the very tall man would have been much happier.

The man's one dark eye peered out from the hole in his bandages as he ushered Kazu inside the building. The kid nodded obediently and, dragging his teddy bear with him, disappeared through the door of the shelter. "Thank you for bringing back Kazu. He was one of the stubborn ones who insisted on staying behind."

Ino's eyes widened.

Chouji gasped.

Shikamaru cursed under his breath. "_One of the stubborn ones? _You mean there were others down there? Sai was only able to find one." He said the last sentence almost to himself.

For a brief moment, there was confusion in that one eye. "Were you not able to see others there?"

Ino watched as Shikamaru dug his hands into his pockets, as if searching for a cigarette. It had been a habit he's developed over the years, an addition to forming a square with both hands when he needed to think. "The team that handled the Mukagawa Ravine Mission wasn't us, and that team barely made it out of there with all their members intact just to save that boy. Our recon master wasn't able to pick up other signs of life within the houses. Could it be possible they've escaped?"

"I hope so…" was all Yue could say. To Ino, it seems like this Yue person was not capable of showing his feelings much, what with the bandages dangerously looking that they would pop out. "Five years ago, the ravine had been safe for us, and it wasn't until recently that the river's water level had begun to rise during the rainy season. But the children have grown quite attached to that place, and we always end up going back when the weather thins out."

"Why?" Shikamaru asked.

"It's the only home these children have." He gestured to the very sorry looking building. "Better than this." His hands then pointed to the direction of the Hidden Sound Village. "Better than that."

Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji followed Yue's gaze to the flourishing rice fields, faces dark. Though Team Ten was not among those who had tried to infiltrate the Hidden Sound, they were not uninformed of the situation in that Land. "I don't think there's anything to worry about now, now that Orochimaru is dead."

Ino swallowed hard. Dead? Killed was more like it. The thought that the Sasuke Uchiha that she used to fantasize about when she was a little girl was the one who had single-handedly overpowered one of the Legendary Sannin.

_Damn you, Sasuke… Come home…_

But Sasuke would not. It had been almost two years since he had freed himself from Orochimaru, almost two years after his successful revenge on his brother, Itachi Uchiha. And in the span of those two years, he still would not come home. And only the gods knew why.

"It doesn't matter if he's dead. With all the casualties he's taken from us…"

Shikamaru returned his gaze at Yue. "Casualties…?"

The bandages over the man's face where his nose could be, rattled, as if he was taking a deep breath. Ino winced. She could not imagine how those would smell like.

"Five years ago, all the orphans residing here that were sixteen and above were forcefully taken from us by Orochimaru's drones, so long as they were _'promising'_… whatever that meant. We never saw them again. Two years have passed since Orochimaru's death, and no one from the Sound ever returned to the Land of Fire. The first time the kidnappings happened, we fled to the ravine, away from here. But the Feudal Lord keeps on forcing us back here." Yue began to wheeze, as if talking had put a strain to his voice. He leaned one heavily bandaged arm on the wall of the shelter.

Shikamaru, who seemed to have found a cigarette inside his pockets, hesitated, then pulled his arms over his chest. "There are no more threats here for you. You should be safer here. I'm going to talk to the Hokage about children's benefits for your little shelter, and everything's going to be fine."

Yue nodded, still wheezing. "That would be extremely helpful. Some of the young ones may need some medical attention, too."

"We'll make sure you get what you need as soon as humanly possible."

Ino chewed on her lip. She knew that she should not be speaking up, and let Shikamaru do all the talking, but she couldn't help it. "I don't have that much skill in healing, but I can take a look at some of the children right now, if you like."

This made Yue's head shoot up, alert. "Will you, really?"

Ino was about to nod her head when Shikamaru grabbed her arm. "We have to report back to the Lady Hokage before we dig our hands into this mess, Ino. Our mission was to deliver the boy, and we've done that. We don't even have supplies with us if those kids really _do _need medical attention."

Ino stared at her team leader incredulously. "Shikamaru, this village is a day away from the Leaf. I don't think the kids here have anything serious a bit of food can't fix, because I highly suspect they're just under-nourished. We can't turn a blind eye on this."

Shikamaru looked like he was struggling with a decision between his job and his conscience. It took Chouji's big hands to finally convince him with one hard shove, making Shikamaru keel over.

"If you lend me your kitchen, I'll be able to whip up something. I can see from here that you have a patch of land with things growing on them at the back," Chouji said, pushing his sleeves up his thick arms.

Yue, who only looked at them with that one eye, took his time before he spoke, and when he did, his voice was cracking a bit, and Ino suspected he could cry any moment. "Thank you so much. We have very little, but please feel free to use whatever you want."

And that was how they finally got to parade into the building. Ino was not mistaken with her assumptions about the inside. Nasty off-white, peeling walls greeted them, a row of doors lined in the long corridor, where tiny, dirt-stained faces peeked curiously to look at the three strangers who smelled different and looked squeaky clean.

Yue was hobbling his way to lead them to the kitchen, and though Ino was mesmerized at the difference between the kids here and the kids in the Leaf were, she could not help but notice something quite out of place in the shelter.

Though Yue had said that they practically had nothing – and seeing _was_ believing – the corridors, as well as most of the open rooms they passed, contained beautiful tapestries of colors, shapes and angles, all contained in rough wooden picture frames. Some were so small Ino had to look a little harder just to make out what was drawn in them, while some were so big they occupied half of a wall. Most of the paintings were derived from nature – apples, trees, shapeless clouds – and though crudely made, as if a child had drawn them, they were rich in color that every single minimal detail jumped out of the frames as if to come to life.

Chouji and Shikamaru seemed to have noticed this fact, too.

"Did the children do these?" Shikamaru asked, still a bit hurting for being overthrown by his teammates.

Yue barely even paused as he continued through the corridor. "They do not paint, anymore. But they used to…" was his answer.

Ino didn't know how to answer him at that, but she nodded anyway. "They're beautiful. It makes this place a little bit pleasanter that it is." And the four of them continued along the corridor, where Chouji disappeared into a room which was supposed to be the kitchen.

Of all the paintings she'd seen, of which were mostly childlike – crayon-like – wonder, there was one other about four feet tall, three feet wide in the very end of the hall right under a skylight, a portrait of a beautiful lady in a long, flowing white dress sitting on a wicker chair. In her slender arms was a tiny baby with hardly any hair on its head, sucking on its thumb. It could easily have been mistaken as a girl, but something told Ino it was a boy.

"What's wrong?" Shikamaru asked, coming from behind her.

Ino gestured at the painting with her head. "Over there."

The team leader looked over to where she was pointing at. "A painting," he murmured, then looked over his shoulder at the other drawings framed on the walls. "It's different from the rest."

"This is definitely something no child painted. Do you think it could be Yue's work?"

Shikamaru frowned. "With those hands, I don't think so."

Chouji's head popped out of the kitchen. "Hey, guys. I need a bit of help here. Do you think one of you could fetch me some vegetables outside? I'm thinking _Curry!_" he said happily, gesturing with his arms as if he intended to make a lot of it.

Before either Shikamaru or Ino could react, the slightly ajar doors lining the corridor with tiny faces peeking through them gingerly opened, and out stepped about a couple dozen sets of little slippered feet.

"Cu-urry?" one of the children stammered, and there was a wave of murmurs that suddenly washed upon the crowd of onlookers around them.

Ino felt her heart ache terribly at the sight of them coming out at the mention of food. Quickly scanning her eyes over the children, she was slightly relieved to see that contrary to what she thought earlier, they did not look like they needed physical medical attention. But there were somewhat dead looks in those large eyes as they looked up at them, licking their dry lips hungrily.

Chouji stepped out of the kitchen, clapping his hands energetically. "Okay kids! Who wants to help big brother Chouji gather vegetables from the garden, because big brother Shika-bear doesn't want to get his hands dirty?"

Shikamaru winced at the name.

Several kids, probably overwhelmed by this huge, fat guy asking them to help him collect carrots and potatoes from outside, backed away a little.

Chouji's face fell. "Oh, come on! Aren't you hungry?"

It took a little more coaxing from Chouji until two little girls stepped forward hesitantly.

"I-I'll help…" one of them, a girl with short black hair, said quietly, shuffling her feet.

"Me, too," said the other, all the while sucking on one of her pigtails.

And that was all it took for the children to finally warm up a bit on Chouji. Some were even willing to let him hold their hands as they led him to the back door leading to the garden.

Shikamaru, despite himself, cracked a small smile. "That's Chouji for you."

Ino turned to him. "Shikamaru, what is this place? How can such a poor place exist in the Land of Fire when the Leaf's children are all so well fed and watered?"

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. "I don't know, but I'm gonna find out." He stuffed his hands into his pockets. "I'm sending the Hokage a message to inform her of the situation here, and that we're going to run a bit late."

"Alright." Ino watched as Shikamaru walked the length of the corridor, sometimes stopping to glance at a framed drawing, and then finally disappeared through the door leading outside, where he was going to smoke three or four sticks while he tried to process in his head everything that has happened before encoding it into a scroll.

* * *

The news about the Heiress of the Hyuuga Clan dating the Kyuubi kid spread through the village like wildfire. Of course, it was not because the few of those who knew first-hand had anything to do about the rumor, but the Kyuubi kid in his black and orange attire was simply too hard to miss, especially when his clones kept on running around the village with yellow tulips in their hands, and dropping them in the pond just outside the Hyuuga heiress' bedroom window in the dead of night.

And if they did not witness the nocturnal stunts of the boy, they still would not be able to miss the bounce in the heiress' steps as she went to and fro her everyday duties, or the fact that for the first time in nineteen years, she was able to defeat her cousin Neji in a sparring match. Some said it was pure luck, while some said Neji had been a little too lenient on the girl, but only Neji Hyuuga could tell that something in his cousin had changed overnight. And because of this change did he swear to himself – and to a very amused Tenten who was unfortunate enough to have witnessed her spar mate's demise – that next time he ever sparred with Hinata again, he was going to make sure to double his defense on his backside, where Hinata had cunningly and unexpectedly shoved the middle and index finger of both hands in his ass. It was just something Hinata wouldn't have done in a million years.

If she wasn't dating Naruto Uzumaki, that is.

The news about their relationship status had become the topic between the teachers and Jounin, especially when Naruto finally left the village for Myobokuzan the next day. The only one impervious of the shock among the teachers was Kurenai Sensei, who listened to the talks between the teachers as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. Kurenai only smiled down at her little Asuma while Iruka and Kakashi stopped by to visit her, gossiping like women about their little Naruto finally getting a cute girl for his own. Kurenai, after all, knew that between the Kyuubi kid and the Heiress, Hinata was the happier of the two, that a crush that lasted over a decade now had finally turned into something more.

Along with those who were glad for Naruto and Hinata was Sai.

The former ROOT member was breezing through the marketplace, hearing snatches of news about Hinata going out with the village's idiotic hero. Heroic Idiot. Whatever.

But right now, although in the mood to celebrate, Sai's head was preoccupied. Sakura had invited him to lunch with her parents. And that invitation was _today_.

And although he was pulling a straight face, butterflies the size of horses were swimming around his stomach, making him feel sick. All of that was fine, actually; he just wished he understood _why _he was feeling this way, or at least be able to decipher if this was a _good feeling _or a _bad feeling_.

He felt… excited?... and at the same time honored that Sakura had invited him to meet her parents, but at the same time … nervous? Was that the right emotion? Yes, that had to be right, though he did not think that his poor little heart being capable of feeling two or three emotions at once just yet… He felt like puking all over his front.

As he stopped in front of the bakery, he looked at his reflection on the glass window and discovered he had a silly grin on his face; it looked so disturbing, having to see him grinning eerily like that, and so he commanded his face to stop. His now stoic expression looked back at him. The expression, however, was instantly replaced with shock when Sakura, a big box of something in her hands, suddenly stepped out of the bakery. The degree of happiness brought about by seeing her overwhelmed him

The moment she saw him, she jumped and desperately tried to hide the box behind her. "_Sai? _I mean, Sai! What are you doing here? I told you I'll pick you up at your place in an hour, right?"

Sai ignored her question and pointed at the box she was desperately trying to hide behind her. "Is that a cake?"

Sakura started to sweat. "Uhm… it could be…"

Sai stared at her, letting his arms drop to his sides as an emotion suddenly landed on his gut like dead weight. It joined the butterfly horses, making him feel even worse. He knew this feeling. This was what they called disappointment. "You said you'd bake the cake yourself," he said accusingly.

Sakura finally accepted that she was caught. She sighed in resignation. "I did."

"Then why are you sneaking around in the bakery, buying a cake when you've already baked one?"

Sakura knitted her brow. "Fine! It's because it didn't turn out well, and I don't have the time to make a new one! You should have known me better than to expect I'd be able to make something as complicated as cake when I can't even boil water."

Sai did not know what to say. It was the first time he actually felt disappointed in her, and over such a trivial thing. He was not sure how to arrange his face, or even to comfort her, especially with her face flushed in embarrassment.

Reaching out and taking the box from her, he pattered her lowered pink head gently. "Maybe next time, then."

Sakura frowned up at him. "Patronizing jerk."

It was an insult, he knew. But he found out it made the butterfly horses go away slightly, though the heavy lump inside him was still there. He could not lie to himself that he had been looking forward to something Sakura would make just for him, even if he knew he would be risking food poisoning.

He decided to change the subject. "Do I need to bring anything? Drinks?"

Sakura shook her head. "Everything's covered, Sai. I just hope you starved yourself, because when my mother sees how pale you are, she's going to make you eat five helpings, if she can stuff you with them."

"I didn't eat breakfast, if that's what you mean." That was because he had been queasy all morning.

Sakura grinned up at him as they started down the market slowly. "What are you doing here, by the way?"

Sai shrugged, adjusting his hold on the cake. "Killing time. I tried to paint, but I feel weird inside."

Sakura looked at him worriedly. "Are you sick?"

Sai nodded. "I feel sick down here," he shifted the box in one hand and pointed at his stomach with the free one. "I didn't eat anything because if I did, I felt like I was gonna throw up. Why is that?"

The kunoichi stopped dead on her tracks. Sai realized this after striding two steps. He stopped, looked over his shoulder at her. "Is something wrong?"

Sakura gave him an exasperated look. "Don't be nervous, Sai. They're good people, you know. My dad could be a bit loud, but that's the reason why I invited you to lunch and not dinner. Dad loves drinking beer before going to bed, and he gets into a really happy mood when he's tipsy."

The two continued to walk. "My mom can control him well, but she'll be a bit disappointed if you don't make second helpings. She kind of takes pride in her recipes."

This was, Sai felt, quite hard to believe. How can Sakura, who has zero talent in cooking, have a mother who _'takes pride' _in her recipes? He decided not to voice his question and smiled. "I'm getting hungrier already." He congratulated himself for saying something that made Sakura giggle pleasantly.

They tried to kill the hour by walking around more, but Sakura decided that it wasn't good for the cake, and so they made their way to the farthest part of the residential area of the Village, where Sakura led him to a house made of chocolate-colored bricks and a low-shingled roof. In front of the house was a very lush, well taken care of garden that he couldn't resist not linger on.

In one corner, he saw plump tomatoes peaking from inside a small greenhouse. Mints were poking their leafy heads out of long white planters lining the end of the garden, and right in front of those were heads of parsley and cauliflower. Carrots yet to be harvested were in straight rows in the middle of the garden patch, and here and there were herbs and spices Sai was not familiar to.

Sakura relieved him of the box in his hands. "They'll be surprised to see you this early." She touched his shoulder briefly. "Come on."

Sai felt the place where she touched him tingle a bit, and he scratched at it, thinking it was an itch. He then followed her up the cobblestone path leading to the door.

Sakura was about to knock on the door when it suddenly sprang open, and a very petite lady with shiny chestnut brown hair in a loose bun popped out of the house. She was a head smaller than Sakura, two heads shorter than Sai. But one could never miss those green cat eyes. Sakura's eyes. And while Sakura smelled of Cherry blossoms, her mother smelled strongly of chamomile and lemongrass.

"I thought I heard someone snooping in the garden," said the woman. Her voice was high-pitched, and she looked like she was capable of talking really fast. She grabbed Sakura's forearm and squeezed affectionately. "Look at you! You're nothing but skin and bone! Is the Lady Hokage overworking you again at the hospital?"

Sakura looked over at Sai and rolled her eyes at him, but the smile on her lips told Sai otherwise. "This is my mother, Kimie Haruno. She's bubblier than soap, but I love her to death. Mom, this is Sai. I've mentioned him a few times before. He's the newest member of Team Seven."

Sai's mouth suddenly felt very, very dry and he had to swallow hard when those green eyes – so much like Sakura's – stared up at him inquisitively. "Hello," Sai said uncertainly, feeling sweat pop up on the small of his back.

Mrs. Haruno blinked, then out of nowhere her hand shot up, and her fingers glazed Sai's cheek gently. "You have nice eyes."

Sai felt his face grow incredibly hot, and he found himself lost, not knowing what to do. He saw Sakura behind her mother's shoulder, mouthing something desperately.

Sai, finally getting the picture, returned his gaze down at the lady. "Thank… you…"

The lady blinked, as if snapping out of some spell. "Oh dear me! Where are my manners? Come in, come in! I'm sorry for being rude. It's just that you're the first boy Sakura's ever brought home to dine with us. Except Naruto, of course. How is the boy, anyway? I heard he's got himself a girlfriend…!"

Sai blinked at what the lady just said, then he tried to catch Sakura's eye. The girl desperately made her escape with the cake inside the house, which was emitting aromas Sai had never even dreamed of smelling before. Had the scent of food not made his stomach growl loudly, he would have spent that time gloating to no one in particular that aside from Naruto, the only guy who Sakura has invited was _him_.

_Sasuke hasn't been invited…_

The thought had been so random that Sai stopped walking, only to discover that Sakura's father, who was sitting on the couch when he came in, stood up and was now shaking his hand roughly.

Mr. Haruno was tall and gangly, with dirty orange hair, a shower of freckles on his nose, and deep, brown eyes. If Sakura got her eyes from her mother, that smile was definitely from her father. It was confusing, however, because he was half expecting to at least find one of the parents with pink hair. It turns out that Sakura's hair origin was a complete mystery even to them.

Sai didn't care. Pink was a happy color, anyway.

When Mrs. Haruno sat him down beside her husband, this was the time he took to examine where Sakura had grown up. It was a cozy little place, mostly with a wood furnish on everything. The living centered on the television, where right next to it was a huge shelf full of tiny trinkets made of more wood. On the highest shelf sat the gift he and Sakura bought from Onsen Village. The dining/kitchen area was larger than the living room, as if it were meant to contain many people to dine with them everyday. The dining table was rectangular; four chairs arranged around it, wooden plates, wooden cups and chopsticks were already set on the table for four. Mrs. Haruno was busy on the kitchen counter and Sakura was nowhere to be found.

When he had finished exploring the house with his eyes, Mr. Haruno nodded at him approvingly. "It seems that they have a sensible teammate to keep everything under control. Naruto and Sakura could be a handful, but with you around, I guess there's nothing to worry about."

Sai tilted his head slightly to the right. "I think you're mistaken, sir. Sakura's the level-headed one in the group." And as Sai knew no techniques in flattery, he had just said what he thought the truth, but the father only laughed at him and handed him a beer.

That was when Sakura appeared out of nowhere and snatched the offensive thing from Sai's hand. "Da-ad!" Sakura said disapprovingly. "Can't this wait till dinner?"

"Is Sai staying for dinner too?" Mr. Haruno asked hopefully.

Sakura shook her head. "He's tired, and today's our last day-off. He won't be drinking tonight."

Her father looked at her reproachfully. "You're starting to sound like your mother."

Sai had to smile at the comparison, because he did not believe they were anything alike. His thoughts were backed up when he tasted the food. It was the best thing he's ever tasted in his life! And he believed that had Sakura not told him to have second helpings, he still would have, because everything was heavenly that he ended up having his sixth serving of rice and chicken and greens and still wanting more, until Sakura warned him there was still desert.

While Mrs. Haruno started to clear the table to make room for the cake, Sai took this as the opportunity to use the bathroom.

"It's the last door to the left in the corridor," Sakura said, pointing indifferently behind her.

Sai looked over to where she pointed, shrugged and started for the corridor. He found the door that let to the toilet, did his business and stepped out. He was about to make his way back to the dining area when he saw a conspicuous-looking box sitting on the washing machine adjacent the bathroom.

Looking over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't being watched, he approached the box slowly. Pulling its cover gingerly, he was surprised to see a medium-sized shortcake topped sloppily with runny icing all over. Sai looked over his shoulder again, dipped his finger into the icing, and put it in his mouth.

Shivers wracked his whole body.

It was the first time in his life that he's tasted a salty cake.

Sai looked down at the cake blankly. He remembered having Sakura buying a new one after saying that this cake did not _'turn out well'_. In his mind's eye he saw Sakura's pained and embarrassed expression when she admitted that the cake had been a failure.

Sai chewed on the insides of his mouth. It was he who requested for this, and Sakura who was well aware of her skills and the lack of it, still said yes to him. Feeling an unexplainably _bad feeling_ – was this guilt? – he reached out his hand, took a huge chunk of the salty cake, and started eating it bit by bit.

* * *

Sakura looked over her shoulder and blinked when she realized it had been quite a while since Sai had gone to the toilet. She hoped to god he wasn't snooping around the laundry area…

Suddenly having a bad, bad feeling about this, she put down the desert plates on the table. "I'm going to check on Sai," she said.

Her mother wiped her hands on her apron. "I hope he's alright. He must have overeaten…"

Sakura nodded. "I'll go check." Brushing back the blinds that separated the dining area to the corridor leading to the toilet and bath area, she peered in first.

And screamed bloody murder.

Sai was on his knees, in one hand a box of _something _that suspiciously looked like the failure cake she had made earlier, another hand covered with icing, his mouth moving slightly, as if he was chewing something.

As if he was _eating _something.

As if he was _eating her cake_…!

"Sai! What the heck do you think you're doing?" She yelled. Her loud voice brought her mother and father running to the corridor.

"What's wrong Sa – " her mother's face suddenly paled and her hands flew to her mouth at the sight of Sai, who had now put down the box on the floor, chewed what appeared to be the last bite of the cake, and swallowed.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" her father demanded.

"Sai ate the cake I made!" Sakura moaned, stalking towards Sai, who was now wiping at his mouth. She kicked the now empty box away and grabbed his face on either cheek. "Sai, that cake was a mistake! I got the sugar and salt mixed up. Why did you eat it?"

Sai looked down at her with those dead but penetrating eyes, pried her hands off her face and said, "Because you made that cake for me. And it was delicious. Now if you'll excuse me..." He calmly opened the door of the toilet again, got in, closed the door gently, and didn't come out for thirty minutes.

Sakura blamed herself for the accident. She should have thrown the cake away. Had she known that Sai would suddenly _eat _it..!

"Sai, get a grip of yourself. Just a bit more…" she grunted an hour later as she fiddled with the key of Sai's apartment. This was not an easy task, what with a half delirious Sai hanging one of his arms over her shoulder for support, one hand pressed to his stomach.

The key finally decided to fit into the hole, and Sakura kicked the door open. This was the first time she had actually stepped inside the apartment. Most of the time, she'd just knocked on the door and wait for him to answer, relay the mission then and there, then leave.

She was not surprised at what she saw. The scarcity of furnishing showed as little personality as possible, except that he was a neat freak. The table shoved against the wall had the inks arranged by colors, and all sorts of brushes were washed and left to dry on an ink-stained cloth on the edge of it. A dresser was on the far wall, and the bed was opposite it. The walls were raw wood, and a few paintings were framed and hung for display, and as much to Sakura's expectations, none were titled. Several easels were folded and neatly put away between the table and the wall. There wasn't a speck of dust anywhere.

"Cooperate with me, Sai. We're going to the bed, all right?" Sakura said as she all but dragged the boy, who looked paler than normal.

Sai nodded, burped loudly, and muttered an apology. He did not protest when Sakura gently put him down on the mattress, where he curled up on his side, hugging the only pillow on the bed to his stomach. When he got comfortable enough, he closed his eyes and sighed, as if lying down was the best thing ever.

Sakura sat down on the floor, rested her elbows on the bed and leaned her chin on the mattress, watching Sai's face as he breathed in and breathed out. Though she knew she should have scolded him for once again trying too hard to please her, she could not help but feel slightly touched at what he did, and thought it kind of sweet. Unnecessary, yes. But sweet.

"If Naruto were here, you know he won't let you live this down," Sakura pointed out, brushing a loose lock of dark hair from Sai's forehead.

Sai shifted slightly. "Naruto's too busy being in love to bother with me."

"What do you know about a complicated emotion like love, anyway Sai?" Sakura scoffed as she flicked his nose teasingly, making him wrinkle his nose and open one eye in annoyance.

"Enough," was his short answer.

Sakura reached her hand to his face to flick his nose again, but Sai caught her hand in his and just held it against the bed. He closed his eyes again.

"Oh yeah?" Sakura asked, as if challenging him to share his wisdom on said emotion.

"It's like wanting to make rice balls with the shape of the face of the one you love, even when you're not sure if your efforts are appreciated," Sai said.

Sakura laughed at his attempt of an explanation. "Love is more complicated than that, Sai. When you finally find the girl that you like, you can tell me all about it to the last, disgusting detail."

Sai squeezed her hand softly. "It's like looking at a dying raccoon and feeling sad because it reminds you of someone…"

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him.

Sai coughed a bit, shifted. "Or it's like coming _this_ close to watching her drown in a river, and not really caring what happens to you if it just means drowning together…"

Sakura felt her face grow warm. She sat up straight.

"Or watching her get drunk from too much chocolate, and watching her toes while you paint a butterfly on her shoulder. And just sitting in a hot spring saying nothing." Sai squeezed her hand again, then intertwined his fingers with hers. Sakura tried to pull away, but he would not let her. "Or wolfing down the worst cake you've ever tasted in your life, but eating it anyway because you know she made it just for you…"

Sakura felt her hands shaking and she grabbed at the sheets on the bed. She shook her head, unable to comprehend what he just said to her.

Sai gripped her shaking hand fiercely. "Or it's like holding someone's hand, and wishing you'd never, ever have to let go…"

Sakura looked away. "Sai, stop it…"

"Am I wrong? Is there more to love that I need to understand yet?"

Sakura looked back at him, somehow feeling undeniably sad. "Much, much more, Sai. And then some."

Sai's eyes, those deep black eyes, opened slightly. "Teach me…"

Sakura felt her breath caught in her throat. She examined that face, dark hair, dark eyes against pale, pale skin. The way he had his body curled up in a tight ball from eating something he shouldn't have eaten, and claiming it was because of her. The way his fingers so desperately tried to keep her hands in his.

This sincere, childlike weakness… was the only thing Sasuke never had.

Sakura leaned forward, ever so slowly, placed her free hand on Sai's cheek and kissed him, gently but lingeringly, on the lips.

She could feel Sai's whole body tense as their lips touched, and Sakura thought of pulling away, until Sai's other hand mimicked hers, his slightly calloused fingers running though her hair and stopping at the base of the neck. But of all the things that surprised Sakura in the nineteen years she's been living was this one single fact.

Sai was actually kissing her back. And he was damn good at it.

* * *

_**Ohhh Emmmm Geeee! Can you believe I wrote this whole chapter's draft in the hospital waiting area because it took me three and a half hours just to get my knee checked up? It's been hurting like crazy… But that really wouldn't interest you. LOL!**_

_** Okay so, we finally have Sai and Sakura together. Squeeee! But then what's going on with Team Ten? Gasp! **_

_** Reviews are loved, people! If you love me, you'll give me the ego boost, right? XD**_


	12. Chapter 12: Anger

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden. **_

* * *

It was six in the evening when Sai finally came to, as if waking from a long, long dream. The moment he opened his eyes groggily, his stomach made a sudden lurch, and he groaned, feeling like he had eaten lead. Shifting from one side to another, he was momentarily paralyzed when he saw Sakura sleeping soundly beside him, pink hair fanning out on the one pillow they had to share, the setting sun streaming through the blinds of his window left stripes of light on her peaceful face.

Sakura sighed quietly, and Sai felt his stomach did another lurch, but this time he knew it had nothing to do with Sakura's salt cake. Hesitating a bit, wondering if he was allowed to take liberties on touching her face, he used a very tentative finger to trace her eyebrows, then her nose, then her mouth, where his eyes lingered a little longer that he normally would allow them to. She had kissed him, which was not but four or five hours ago, but felt like an eternity had passed since then. He could not even recall the hundred thousand sensations that had hit his body simultaneously at the unexpected contact, but right now, as he stared at her peaceful form, he could not help but feel… _a very, very good feeling._

He brushed his thumb across her cheek, and her lashes flickered a bit. This was not the first time he got to lay down beside her. In fact, how many times was he able to see her sleep? In the hospital, in the underground cave, in the bath house.

But this time, it was different. She was in his room. On his bed. On his pillow. There was nothing 'accidental' or 'coincidental' about it, from the moment Sakura mocked him about the meaning of love, to that moment when she leaned in to kiss him, to the moment he kissed her back. He, admittedly, had not known how to react to the display of affection. He had read about kisses in books so many times in the past, but of all the things he had absorbed from those materials, he found not even one useful thing that could have prepared him for it; he had frozen, completely, in Sakura's shadow as she loomed over him, and it was only when he feared she was going to pull away that his body moved unconsciously, placing his hand at the back of her neck, making sure she was not going to go anywhere.

And that was when his lips slanted against hers and kissed her, for the very first time. If he had kissed anyone in his life before – aside from those women in the night club in the neighboring village when Naruto and the others dragged him to when he'd turned eighteen – he did not think it was just as memorable, because as far as he was concerned, having shared a gentle kiss with the kunoichi lying next to him was probably the one and only unexplainable experience in the twenty years of his sorry existence.

Eyes darting at the clock and back, he leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Sakura…"

The pink-haired girl's emerald-green eyes fluttered open, focused on his raven-black ones, took a moment to ponder on things, then smiled. "Hey there." She closed her eyes again, snuggled against Sai's chest and fell silent for a few moments before she said in a muffled voice, "How are you feeling?"

Sai blinked as he felt his body stiffen again at her proximity. He did not know what to do with his arms, so he gingerly let his hands settle on her lithe form, and allowed himself to relax. "I feel… _fine_," was the only thing he could utter as he looked down at the top of her bright head. "How do _you _feel?" He thought it was proper to ask.

She shook her head. "I don't know. Confused, I guess?"

"Why is that?"

She fell silent.

Sai began to worry. What do _'normal people'_ usually do at awkward situations like this? If Sakura herself was confused, then who was going to help him decipher his feelings? He rested his chin on her head, and decided that if Sakura was confused, he might as well take initiative to solve this problem for the both of them. "Is it a _good feeling_, or a _bad feeling_?"

This made Sakura breath sharply, and after a moment said, "A good feeling, Sai. Probably the best feeling I've felt in a while now."

Sai felt his heart skip a beat at this answer. "Really? Then why the confusion?"

It took a while before she could respond. "Because I never thought in a million years that I'd feel like this for another person, aside from Sasuke," she said silently.

And they were silent.

Sai knew that she was merely telling the truth, but he could not believe that the Uchiha's name could trigger so many negative emotions in him. Was he jealous? Angry? "You feel for me the way you feel for him?" he asked, uncertain.

"Uhm… no, not exactly." Sakura buried her face deeper into his chest. "With Sasuke, it was like a never-ending tug-of-war with myself, that you would lose either way. But I've chased after him, wanted him to notice me even just once. But he never did." She poked his chest with her nose. "And with you, well… gah, do I have to explain it? Because I feel like a corny idiot saying it out loud."

"If you don't explain it to me, I don't think I'd be able to understand, but if you insist…"

Sakura let out a sigh, searched for un-corny words for a few seconds, then said. "With you, it's like, a state of mind more than a feeling… Does that make sense?"

"… No…"

She looked up at him, and his eyes met hers. She was blushing. "It's a safe feeling. It's that state of mind when you don't have to be better and you can't get any worse, because you're not demanded to be anything but yourself. That's what I feel… with you… Okay, now I'm going to stop explaining because I feel a bit idiotic now."

Sai tilted his head slightly, then nodded, kind of –_ kind of _– understanding.

_But then what? _His thoughts must have shown on his face because Sakura wrinkled her nose at him. "What are you thinking?"

Sai squeezed her arm gently. "I'm thinking of what to say next."

That made her laugh. "I see."

Sai raised an eyebrow at her. "So this situation… where does this lead us?"

Sakura rapidly blinked several times, then she hid her face again, probably to hide the deepening blush Sai had barely caught. "That makes us… a couple… I suppose."

With this, Sai felt his eyes widen, a warm feeling spreading from his chest. "Really? Like Naruto and Hinata?"

She gave an embarrassed whimper.

Sai nudged her head with his chin. "That makes you…. My _girlfriend_, yes?"

She whimpered some more.

He watched her look adorable that way, curled up against him, then let his eyes close pleasantly, deciding not to make her suffer with his curious questions. He placed a hand on her forearm. "Are you hungry? Would you like something to eat?" He also thought this appropriate to ask, given the time.

The mention of food made Sakura look up. "Is your stomach all right?"

"Yes," he lied. His stomach was doing uncomfortable summersaults at the moment.

It looked as if Sakura knew he wasn't telling the truth. "I'm making tea," she declared, and pushed herself up and off the bed, then made her way to his very, very bare kitchen.

The moment she left his side, he felt a sudden pang of emptiness in his chest. Sitting up and rubbing the aching spot, he watched silently as Sakura stood on tiptoe, opening and closing the high cabinets over the sink, as if searching for something. The expression on her face when she returned sitting on the bed was of disbelief.

"Sai?"

"Yes?"

"You don't have _anything_. Not even sugar, or salt, or those free ketchup packets you get from the convenience store…"

Sai blinked. "Is that… a bad thing?"

""Well… It most certainly isn't a good thing… but, yeah…"

He lowered his eyes, shameful. "I'm sorry."

Sakura smiled at him ruefully. "It's fine. One day, maybe we could go shopping." She flicked his nose the way she had earlier. "Together."

Sai rubbed his nose, annoyed. "I don't like it when you do that."

She flicked his nose for the second time.

"Stop it!"

She made a go at him again, but he caught her hand, pulled her to him and planted a kiss on _her _nose. It was a weird involuntary reaction that he never knew his body was capable of doing, and Sakura, probably just as surprised as he was, pulled back and blushed.

And as he watched her finger her hair self-consciously, he could not believe that a mere kiss shared out of nowhere could make a person feel strong and weak at the same time. This was just so confusing! He wondered how normal human beings could deal with such confusing emotions every single waking hour of the day.

But as he caught Sakura's hand again when she attempted to bully his nose once final time, and when she did not wait for him to pull her to him again for a kiss, he decided that emotions – as confusing as they are – were all worth it, if it meant having to experience this warm fuzzy feeling spreading inside him everyday.

He was in love. And he loved it.

* * *

The week started pretty busy for Sai and Sakura that they hardly got the chance to see each other at all.

When they had collected their work load for the week from Tsunade, Sakura found out that she was back to her normal hospital shift, except for that day – Monday – where her services were required at the next town to heal a merchant's daughter.

After being dismissed by the Hokage, she got her provisions ready, and was surprised to see Sai in the village gates, in his ANBU uniform, a heavy-looking backpack slung over his left shoulder, his _tanto_ on his right. Feeling pleasantly happy that she got to exchange a few words with him before she headed out, her heart had immediately sunk when he showed her his workload for the next five days. Sai's load composed of an escort mission today, and recon mission tomorrow night, and one mission on a Wednesday with Team Gai.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders. "We'll figure things out. We still need to shop, remember?" And with this, she flicked his nose lovingly, and set off east, and Sai west. She had looked over her shoulder twice only to find Sai doing the same. They did this for about three or more times until they could not see each other in the clearing.

Her mission in itself took but two hours to get done. It was the traveling that was a pain. And by the time she got back to the village, the sun was practically hidden behind the mountains. There was no sign of Sai being home.

Reporting to the Hokage was troublesome, too, because she kept on asking about Sai's '_progress'_. She would tell the truth that he was going along extremely well, but thought that she did not have to tell her to the extent that Sai was actually doing _so well_ that he got himself a girlfriend who came by the name of Sakura Haruno. Tsunade merely watched her under her lashes, nodded, and stamped her mission _COMPLETE_, then sent her home, saying, "You should relax more; your face is all red. Are you sure you're not coming down with something? Go home and sleep."

And being the good girl that she was, she went straight home, took a warm shower, made dinner, and sat on her kitchen table to kill time. The clock continued to tick, and by midnight, she gave up waiting. It looked like Sai was not coming home today. She retired for that night with weird dreams of being inside an empty ink bottle with an enormous Lady Tsunade peering down at her coyly.

Tuesday, the second day of the second week for Sakura's mission to restore Sai's emotions, found her on her toes with patients in the hospital, one of them being Rock Lee. As usual, he overdid it with his training, tried to do a thousand laps around the village when Neji thought it funny to trip him on his nine-hundredth round. He twisted his ankle in the process. It would have taken but a few minutes to patch him up, had Lee not denied first aid, and demanded that he did not need crutches to walk back to his house. Sakura had to tackle him when he tried to escape the hospital, which sprained his _other _ankle, so he ended up having to stay in the hospital, nursing both feet with ice packs and was forbidden to leave until the swelling stopped.

This was probably the day's most exciting event, because after Lee, all her patients were well-behaved and did as they were told. Nevertheless, when the hospital closed at five in the afternoon, the paperwork that followed almost made her eyes bleed. Not that she was not used to this; she had been doing this for the past three years as the head medic. Perhaps having used three days of leave had made her soft. Or perhaps she didn't have a _boyfriend_ for the last three years she had been doing this, and now that she did, time seemed to move _too_ slow in the hospital's office.

It was already eight in the evening when she finally got out, and was pleasantly surprised to find Sai squatting on the grass under a tree in the hospital garden. He was, again, in his ANBU uniform, just as she'd seen him yesterday morning when they parted ways for their missions. On his back was not his usual backpack, but a heavy-looking scroll he only brought with him on reconnaissance missions.

When he saw her come out of the building, he picked himself up, dusted his pants and waved at her approaching form. Sakura couldn't believe how by just the sight of him, she suddenly felt refreshed.

"Hey there, stranger," Sakura greeted, stopping a few feet in front of him, her hands behind her. "What time did you check back in the village last night?"

Sai grinned crookedly. "Two in the morning today. The client had too many pit stops that I ran a bit late on schedule." He gestured at her. "I dropped by your house but the lights were out. I didn't want to bother your sleep."

Sakura laughed. "You should have dropped by today to say hi, at least. I was in the hospital all day. We could have had lunch together."

Sai looked quite uncomfortable. "I did. Drop by, I mean. But you looked busy with Lee that I didn't want to butt in… "

The remark made Sakura open and close her mouth dumbly. She blinked. Could Sai be… jealous? She flicked his nose, and he jumped back with a small protest. "He sprained his ankle. Well, both ankles. That's my fault, though."

"Naruto said to me a few months ago that Lee likes you…"

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "He was a patient in my ward. I had no choice."

This made Sai struggle a bit. After a few moments of expressionless battle, he smiled uncertainly. "I'm sorry. That's none of my business."

Sakura observed his body language. Sai, as far as she could tell, had never really had a girlfriend, and was probably still getting the hang of things. It was not the first time he had been protective of her over other men. There was the instance when someone had tried to hit on her in Onsen Village in the Izakaya, and hadn't Sai handled that quite well?

_But then again, you weren't his girlfriend then, and he was merely protecting a female friend. _

She found it kind of adorable that Sai was still in stitches as he tried to analyze his feelings. She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "Would you like to have some ramen with me?"

Sai frowned at that. "I can't. I just dropped by to see if I could talk to you before I leave the village again."

"At this hour?"

"Recon mission. The neighboring farm needs a spy on his sheep herd. Someone seems to be stealing his livestock at night."

And with that, they said their goodbyes, leaving Sakura quite heavy-hearted and pining. She did her normal routine before going to bed, only to find out she could not sleep.

Wednesday made her wish she _did _sleep. The morning had stretched longer than necessary because it was uneventful in any way possible. Lee was released in the morning just in time for his mission. Sakura remembered that Sai was to accompany Team Gai for a C rank escort mission for the traders coming from the Sand.

Except for a few kids who dropped by to have their CPR training, there was nothing much to do, so Sakura had decided to catch up on refilling the patients' data in the archive. She let time fly, her head buried in mounds and mounds of papers in the office, and raised her head at around six in the afternoon when someone hastily knocked on her door.

Miya, a young nurse who was in charge in the reception area, did not even wait for Sakura to call her in. She pulled at the sliding door with so much force that it slammed against the wall with a loud bang.

Sakura was on her feet. "What's going on?"

"Sakura! Come quick!" was all Miya could utter, her face pale with pure horror. Gesturing for her to follow, she dashed down the corridor, Sakura a few feet behind her.

A lot of terrible possibilities flashed in her mind's eye. Could Kakashi-Sensei be wounded? She had heard he was away on a top secret mission Lady Tsunade had sent him to. Or maybe it was Naruto? He had just left for training. Did he really overdo it this time?

Or it could be –

"_Sai!_" Sakura could not stop her mouth from blurting out his name when she found her teammate sitting on one of the lobby benches, sporting a bloody head and apparently a broken left arm.

She all but ran to his side, worriedly sending chakra flowing through her palms, probing his wounds. "Are you all right? What happened?" Her heart was in her throat.

Sai did not say anything, but his face had an uncharacteristic sour expression, making him look… _angry_. This was a first. Sai _never_ got angry. In the week she had spent with him, he had opened up to a lot of emotions. But she had never seen him this mad before.

When she finally calmed down a bit after discovering that aside from his arm, there was no fatal damage to his body, she noticed Neji and Tenten standing by the hospital entrance. Tenten was holding in her hands a long _kusari-gama,_ which ended with the chain around a very sober Rock Lee.

Sakura motioned for the nurses standing by to tend to Sai, then turned to Neji. "Did something wrong happen in the mission? And why is Lee tied up?"

Neji, his pearly-white eyes stared at Sakura as if peering into a microscope. He crossed his arms over his chest. "The mission was a success. And this guy – " He gestured at his subdued teammate. " – needed to be detained because he picked a fight with Sai."

Sakura could only gasp. Although she had not really spent too much time with the Taijutsu-user, Lee never really struck her as being violent.

Tenten jerked the chain in frustration. "It wasn't ill-meant, Sakura. We finished the mission with two hours to spare, so we thought of celebrating when we got back to the village. And, well, it was a long day, and _shochuu_ was just required to top it off, and well… " she kicked Lee, who only shuddered slightly, as if embarrassed at what he'd done. "Lee doesn't respond to alcohol too well…"

Sakura had heard of that strange fact. Apparently, Lee's Drunken Fist was deadly. "Then why the heck did he drink… No, let me rephrase that. Why did you guys _let_ him drink if you knew he'd go berserk?"

Neji had the decency to blush, at the same time trying to maintain his cool composure. "Because it's interesting. We do it all the time. Since I've gotten the hang of his technique, he can't really do much damage with me around. But today – " his eyes lingered at the former ROOT member who was now being dragged into a room by three nurses. " – today was different. Something Lee said, made Sai snap…"

Sakura could not believe this. How was she going to explain to the Hokage that Sai got into trouble again because of his emotions? "God… I'm so sorry, Neji. I know Sai could be weird and – "

Tenten shook her head. "Sai didn't do anything wrong, Sakura. Lee said something he shouldn't have said about you when he was drunk, and Sai… well… he just got mad!" the kunoichi said this as if she, too, could not believe it. "Sai got _mad_, Sakura! I never thought it possible."

With this, Sakura narrowed her eyes at Lee, who shrank in her gaze. "What exactly did you say?"

Lee swallowed hard. "_Idontremembersorry_!" he blurted out.

Neji took a deep breath then exhaled slowly. "He made a comment about your… ah, Tenten?"

Tenten scratched her head. "He made a comment about your uhm…" she looked at Neji, as if feeling quite embarrassed to have to say it in front of him. "Lee said you have nice breasts and hips and wondered how it would feel like to have to run his hands all over you. There! I said it! _Kill him now!_" She extended the _kusari-kama _towards Sakura, face very red.

"I'm sorry! It was a male thing! _I was drunk! _Honestly, it was just a thought!"

Neji shook his head, massaging his nose bridge. "Sai didn't seem to like it, and I understand his feelings." His eyes, for a split-second, darted towards Tenten. "But Lee meant no harm. If anything, it's my fault for not being able to take control of the situation. But Sai's a fast bastard, and before I knew it three lion paintings were attacking Lee."

Sakura pointed to where Sai had disappeared, incredulous. "Sai's the one who looked like he got beat up bad by Lee. Lee doesn't even have a scratch on him!"

Neji coughed. "Sai didn't attack to kill. He just wanted to restrain Lee. But Lee didn't look like he _wanted_ to be restrained and so, well… he lashed at Sai, rammed his head on the wall and broke his arm in the process… the Izakaya's got a huge hole on its western wall that I have to pay for from my own paycheck."

This was not turning out to be a good day. It was her turn to sigh and massage her nose bridge.

Tenten peered at her cautiously. "Sakura? We're sorry. I hope this doesn't affect our teams. We promise to keep Lee in check from now on. No hard feelings, okay?"

Sakura just wanted the conversation to end. "No hard feelings," she repeated, making herself smile stiffly. When team Gai left with Neji whispering in Tenten's ear, both of them looking over their shoulders to a still fuming Sakura and dragging a still very forlorn Lee, Sakura calmed herself down and made her feet walk to the reception desk, where she collected Sai's clipboard. She flipped on it briskly, returned the clipboard back and proceeded to his room.

She found him sitting on the bed, just in time to see the nurse clip the bandage on his crude cast. The angry, twisted expression he had on his face earlier was gone, replaced by a very blank, very unreadable look. He raised his head when he saw her walk in. The nurse bowed to her and left the room.

She stood in front of him, giving him a disapproving look. "You got into a fight. With your own team member. Why?"

Sai blinked up at her, thought for a while, then said, "I was _defending your honor_." He said the words as if he read it out of a book, which he probably did.

Sakura could only shake her head. "Didn't it occur to you that it was just a… I don't know… a perverted joke you men usually make when you're under the influence of alcohol. Or drugs…" she wrinkled her nose.

Sai stared into her eyes seriously. "If it was a joke, it wasn't funny. I don't want him running his hands all over you. I don't want him even _thinking _of running his hands all over you. The thought just…" he thought for a moment. "The thought just brought about a _very, very bad feeling._"

Sakura watched him talk. Faster than expected, Sai was branching his emotions into different categories that she was worried she won't be able to catch up. Right now, Sakura thought he must be so confused, bombarded by so many new emotions at once; jealousy, anger, covetousness.

She sat down on the bed beside him, patted him gently on the shoulder. He stared at her all the while. "Sai, this is the exact reason why the Lady Hokage asked me to help you. These emotions, these human emotions, when not controlled properly, could destroy the most perfect of men. It can destroy friendship, relationships, trust." She smiled at him. "Do you understand?"

He did not look like he did. He frowned. "Then he shouldn't say those things about you. At least not in front of me."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Oh, like you shouldn't say bad things about Sasuke in front of me and Naruto?"

"That's different!" Sai spat out, his angry expression back.

"It's practically the same," Sakura pointed out to him.

This time, Sai did not look like he had anything else to say. He turned away from her, fuming.

Sakura touched his good hand. "Are you mad?"

"Yes," he retorted.

"Are you mad at _me_?"

Sai shook his head. "I guess I'm just… _stressed_…"

Sakura nodded. "Feeling things make us emotionally pressured sometimes. You'll get the hang of it in due time."

Sai turned to her sharply. "I hardly get to see you, and when I do, we talk for barely ten seconds. I don't like the feeling of distance… Is that… not normal?" he asked uncertainly.

Sakura, eyes huge, finally got the gist out of the dark-haired boy. "Is this what it's all about, Sai? You're _missing_ me?"

Sai was taken aback at Sakura's rationalization. "Is that it? I was missing you, that's why I got mad, and jealous? I don't want to feel like this all the time. It's a bad feeling." he said the last sentence as if the words were poison.

Sakura watched him struggle for about a minute before she touched his cheek, then his head where he had white bandages wrapped around his forehead. Who would have thought that this emotionally challenged boy could grow on her this fast?

"Would you… like to move in with me, then? For your peace of mind, I mean." She was such a liar. She knew deep down she was doing it for him as much as for herself. She may not admit it out loud, but she had missed him as much as he missed her. Probably more.

Sai, who was not really sure what to say, asked the question he always liked to ask when he could not think of anything wise to say. "Is moving in together a good thing?"

Sakura gave him a lopsided smile. "If your partner doesn't snore, it's definitely a good thing."

Sai had to think it over in his head, then said to Sakura. "I don't snore. Or at least I don't think so..."

Sakura had to laugh. She flicked his nose, and he cried out in protest.

So Wednesday ended with Sai and Sakura having the agreement to live together starting that night, which relieved Sai even more than anyone could possibly know. They planned to go shopping together the following day.

Thursday came, and with it came Ino Yamanaka, coming home to the Leaf by herself, bearing news that Sakura never thought she would ever hear in this lifetime.

* * *

_**Ahhh, I had wanted to stretch the romance part a bit longer, but the plot has to move on. I actually wanted to incorporate a fight between Sakura and Sai, but then for drama's sake, I decided to save it for the later chapters of the story.**_

_**Thank you for those who reviewed and added this story to their alert and favorites list. XD You guys make me really, really happy. So long as you are not an anonymous reviewer, I try to reply as much as I can. After all, you guys rock! You all deserve the best plushies in the world!**_


	13. Chapter 13: Intimacy

_**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

* * *

One of the things Ino Yamanaka found intimidating about the Hokage – more than her perfectly etched eyebrows, immaculately pouting lips and cold, cold aura – was her cleavage. Under that wrap-around vest and loose, green _happi_, Ino had always wondered how the woman could carry those weights around and still have a straight back. It was a mystery.

But as she stood in front of the Fifth, the woman's cleavage was the last thing on her mind.

"Report," Tsunade ordered. She did not look too happy with Ino at the moment, and her long, red fingernails were drumming the desk; a habit she did when she was _almost _about to run out of patience.

And Ino knew why her patience was running low,

"Team Ten successfully escorted the boy back to the shelters where he was reunited with Yue Matsunaga, My Lady. All is well."

Tsunade's gaze penetrated her head, as if intending to burn holes into her. The sound of fingernails against wood made Ino swallow hard. "I know that part already. Shikamaru has sent me a scroll _four_ _days_ ago." She grimaced at those last words as if it left a bitter taste in her mouth. "What I want to _know,_ is _why_ it took you _four days_ to report back to me, and _why_ on earth are you alone?"

Ino had expected this, but although she had tried to condition herself for this confrontation, she still could not help but swallow hard to relieve her dry throat. "My apologies, My Lady. It was just that there were… things… we couldn't afford to ignore in the shelters."

Tsunade's brow creased. Her finger-drumming stopped. "You felt sorry for the orphans." It was not a question; more like an accusation.

Ino opened her mouth to explain, hesitated a bit before saying, "They were hungry, Lady Tsunade. And their roof leaked…" her words faded in her mouth as they started to sound feeble to her ears.

"You disobeyed my orders to do a bit of charity?"

"Forgive me, My Lady…"

Tsunade slammed her palm on the desk, making Ino jump. "You decided to be insubordinate just to make food for a bunch of children and fix their roof!"

Ino backed away, frightened. "But if you just saw them – !"

"Don't you think _I _know of their situation? Do you think _I'm_ heartless to turn my back on children of this country? I know their suffering! But bigger things are happening here. _Bigger than a leaking roof!"_

This, Ino thought, was the perfect opportunity to open up to the Hokage about another matter that made them stay. "There were other reasons, Lady Tsunade."

The Hokage narrowed her eyes at Ino. She leaned back on her chair, as if daring for her to explain.

Ino shifted from one foot to another. "Yue Matsunaga was… worried about the past month…"

Tsunade blinked.

"There had been sightings of – "

"Of _Hebi_. Or _Taka_. Or whatever they call themselves lately," Tsunade finished for her.

Ino gasped. "You knew…?"

The Hokage pointedly looked at her. "I hope you didn't mean that to underestimate me. I am not the Hokage for nothing."

"I meant no disrespect." Ino bowed her head lowly.

In the past four days, after hearing of Yue's worries, Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji had decided to confirm the said sightings of the team. On the third day of scouting, they were able to get a visual.

The group Sasuke had formed after Orochimaru's defeat was a three-man cell that in reality, made Ino wonder why the Uchiha chose them. Though she hadn't any contact whatsoever with said group, she, along with the others of her batch, were briefed about the members of the flighty _Taka_.

The first of them was named Suigetsu Hozuki, a Hidden Mist rouge ninja. With nothing much to offer except for a bloody past and a fetish on cutting his opponent's limbs before beheading them, Ino wondered what special skill attracted Sasuke to him when there were many others he could have chosen from. This did not mean, however, that Ino was underestimating Suigetsu. There was nothing to belittle about a crazy man swinging a big sword.

The second of the group was named Karin, a former kunoichi of the Hidden Grass. This girl, on the other hand, had made Ino laugh. Though admittedly, she did possess a number of unique skills that any shinobi would kill to have, she was simply that; an object. She didn't seem to have any great talent in _taijutsu_ or _ninjutsu_, thus making her an open target for anyone who decided to attack her. Though Ino assumed that she could be an asset to a team, it was only if she didn't get caught.

The woman, Karin, also seemed to have an infatuation on Sasuke, which Ino thought weird, but after thinking it over, it somehow made a bit of sense. They say that nothing could be more irresistible to a man than a woman who was madly in love with him. And men don't come any manlier than Sasuke.

The third member of _Taka _was Juugo. The records didn't say much about him, except that he had a temper to watch out for. He seemed to have been a test subject of Orochimaru, but the old bastard, having died, was wise enough to destroy any useful information about him. One thing was for sure, though; like Suigetsu and Karin, Juugo, too, was not straight in the head.

Now, if one would deal with Sasuke's psychology, Ino could have thought Sasuke picked these guys simply on a whim. Or, she could say that the Uchiha was just not very good at choosing members.

But Ino knew better. She had, after all, spent majority of her academy days worshipping the ground he walked on.

Sasuke picked members who were weak in the head who needed a leader. If he had gotten someone smarter than he, then that person would have up and left him because the hard fact was that there was really nothing to gain from him. Another possible reason for Sasuke's choice was the fact that he did not like being outshined. He was just too used to being the star since he was young and Ino did not think he would be choosing members whose level exceeded his. He had wanted a team who would follow him blindly. And he had wanted assurances that he could dispose of them when he felt like it, too.

Though among the facts about the three, the one major thing that made Shikamaru worry about them was that they kept on snooping around the village _without _Sasuke Uchiha. Meaning that the possibility of Sasuke being around the premises was high…

Ino said, "We saw the three with our own eyes. There's no mistaking it. _Taka _is in the Fire Country."

Tsunade sighed, resting her forehead in her hand. "Which is why I don't want Team Ten there," she said in frustration. "Kakashi, under my orders, has been on their tail for almost a month now. Having more Leaf shinobi in the area could cause them to panic and flee, especially when they have a very able sensory-type kunoichi with them."

Ino bit her lip. Tsunade was right. But had she known Kakashi-sensei was on the case… She nodded. "Shall I send a scroll to Shikamaru and Chouji to withdraw, then?"

Tsunade waved her hand at Ino absentmindedly. "Do it fast."

Ino saluted, and thought that to be a dismissal, but Tsunade motioned for her to step forward.

"Ino, this is the best lead we've ever had on Sasuke in two years since Itach's death. I don't think I need to tell you that it is _crucial _to get him back."

Ino felt a pain strike at her chest. She had always wanted to believe that the whole Ninja World was capable of forgiving and forgetting about Sasuke Uchiha. But Ino was not that stupid to dream farfetched dreams. "How is Sasuke?" she asked faintly.

Tsunade fiddled with a very crumpled looking piece of parchment sitting on her lap. "Kakashi has been sending me brief messages about the Uchiha's whereabouts. He's come to a conclusion that Sasuke has retreated into one of the bases of the Hidden Sound to… recuperate… " She crumpled the paper in one fist. "Kakashi's next message is expected in two weeks. By then, Sai's arm would have healed, and I'm sending him out with Hinata Hyuuga and Kiba Inuzuka as a three-man tracking team to support Kakashi."

Ino blinked. She did not know why Sai's arm had to heal first before he was sent into a mission, more so _why _it was broken, but she nodded anyway. Then out of curiosity, asked, "What are you planning to do to Sasuke?"

"Track and capture. But if all else fails…" Tsunade narrowed her eyes. "...we settle for termination."

Ino released the breath she did not even notice she was holding. "Understood. Requesting to be dismissed, My Lady."

"Wait."

Ino blinked at her.

Tsunade's amber eyes met Ino's light blue ones. "Don't tell Sakura anything, all right?"

And the request was out in the open, making Ino involuntarily wrap her arms around herself. Shuddering a bit, she nodded. "I wouldn't even dream of it."

"Good. You are relieved. You will not be going on missions for the time being because Temari of the Sand is coming to visit tomorrow to escort a scribe who will be copying some scrolls from the Leaf Library to replace the ones that were destroyed in Sai's… _'attempt'_ at diplomacy. The two will be here for a week or so, depending on progress. And I want Shikamaru and Chouji here to assist them."

Despite herself, Ino allowed her face to crack a smile. "I'll have the scroll out this very minute."

* * *

The sudden change in living arrangements, especially since it was Sakura's idea in the first place, was a big leap for Sai. He had spent majority of his life living alone, going on missions alone, doing everything alone, and after this brother, there was no one else he had opened up to this extent except for Sakura.

On his fifth day staying with her, and aside from the emotional adjustments he had to do – Like not embarrassing Sakura by walking naked around the house after showering, or being sympathetic to her need of longer bathroom time – he realized that there were certain rules he needed to follow or Sakura was going to get mad, or worse, _upset_.

Rule Number One: Sit, do not stand. Sakura had warned him that in using the toilet seat, he was to sit when relieving himself. She explained to him that standing while you pee was unsanitary. The explanation had been long and embarrassing, and it completely weirded him out. He had, after all, spent all his life standing when he decided to urinate… But it was, undoubtedly, _Sakura's_ toilet, and he just needed to change the habit for her sake.

Rule Number Two: Laundry was to be done on Wednesdays and Sundays. This was also very new to Sai, but decided that it was not going to be a problem with him, since he did not particularly own many clothes. He was wrong, of course. Last Sunday, Sakura had announced that it was laundry day and searched for his dirty clothes. When she did not find any, she demanded he take off the shirt he was wearing because she was going to wash it. This led to Sai wondering if he was going to have to spend Wednesdays and Sundays shirtless.

There were other rules that Sakura had been kind enough to list on a piece of paper and taped it at the back of Sai's door. She had been kind enough, also, to allow him to use the other vacant room which was situated just outside hers. This was where he stocked his art supplies and easels. In the last five days he was there, he seldom got to use the bed there, and majority of the time fell asleep on the couch while waiting for Sakura to come home from the hospital. And Sakura being tired as she was, settled on covering him up with a blanket, then crashing upstairs.

Because of his broken arm, Tsunade had exempted him on further missions that required him to leave the village, and he had pretty much nothing to do but paint uninspired whatnots in his room, and sometimes water Sakura's potted plants situated on her kitchen window. Today, however, he was going to the hospital to get his cast removed, and he was looking forward to it. Somewhere between his elbow and wrist was an itch that he just couldn't wait to scratch.

By noon, he set out for the hospital. Once he got his cast removed, he was hoping to invite Sakura to lunch.

Much to his displeasure, he ran into Ino along the way. She was carrying a wreath of white and blue flowers Sai did not know the name of.

She smiled at him and he backed away a step. She was going to confuse him about so many things again, he just knew it. He wished she wouldn't. He didn't want to be late for his appointment.

"Nice cast," Ino remarked, gesturing at his arm. "I never got the details how you got that, and personally, I don't care. But it makes you look very macho."

Sai could only look at her oddly. "Okay."

Ino laughed, adjusting the hold she had on the wreath. "So what do you think?" she asked him, making sure he got an eyeful of the thing.

Sai eyed the flowers. "They are lovely." He had gotten used to babbling flowery compliments on her because it was easier to understand her when she was smiling.

"Aren't they? It's for Temari's wedding. She wanted to see a sample of the wreaths for the aisle decorations."

Sai blinked. Ah, yes. He heard that Temari of the Sand was in the Village, visiting. He had wanted to see her and maybe apologize to her for the misunderstanding, but Sakura told him that he should at least pick a better timing, and not suddenly barge in on her while she was working and possibly in a bad mood.

Ino looked up at him when he didn't say anything. "Anyway, I had been around your house for the last couple of days but I never got the chance to catch you. I wanted to ask you about a painting I saw in the shelters where we took the boy you rescued. How come you're never home?"

Sai, without even thinking, answered innocently, "That's because I've been sleeping at Sakura's house for almost a week now."

Ino's mouth dropped open like a trap. And at this reaction did Sai have a momentary revelation that he had said the wrong thing.

"Ohhh, my God! Are you two _doing it?_" Ino demanded.

Sai titled his head to the right. "Doing what?"

Ino gestured with her hands, sending white and blue flowers cascading down the two of them on the pavement. "It! I mean… _it_!"

Sai had no idea what she was talking about. Why can't Ino just tell him things straight out instead of making him guess with charades? Ino was gesturing more wildly with her hands now. He winced. "Uhn… moving? Stuffing something… into something… err… I don't know…?"

Ino's face started to turn beet red, even her ears.

"Pumping? Err… Grinding? I give up…"

Ino stopped moving and her shoulders slumped. What once was a pretty wreath now looked like a balding, weird-shaped branch. She sighed, touching her face. "What I meant to ask is, if you two are _intimate_?"

There goes the _'intimate'_ word again. Sai had the same talk with Sakura about intimacy before when they stayed for three days in the bath house. The talk had ended prematurely when he felt his pride got wounded when Sakura undoubtedly stated he was not capable of making sexual advances, and that she did not find him attractive. Well, she did not actually say he was _un_-attractive. But she did not prove otherwise, either.

Remembering that time made Sai very uncomfortable, and the bad feeling that he felt – the insecurity – flooded his head once again.

The day he had lunch with the Harunos, the day Sakura had kissed him, had been a great confidence-booster for Sai, and the thought of his hurting pride because of Sakura's obvious disinterest on him had faded along with her kisses. But here came Ino, asking him if they were _intimate_. What did intimacy have to do with a relationship anyway?

He turned to Ino. "Do you find me attractive?" he asked straight-out.

He did not think Ino's face could get any redder than it already was, but it did. Her mouth opened and closed wordlessly, like a fish. "Attractive, yes. I think you are very handsome. A bit pale for my taste, but definitely good boy material."

Of course, Sai did not even recognize the compliment. He moved a step towards her. "If so, are you _attracted _to me?"

This made Ino scowl. "We love ourselves, don't we?"

Sai nodded expectantly for her answer. When she didn't say anything else, he asked, "What is intimacy?"

Ino, who finally remembered that Sai had the emotional capability same as that of a goldfish, took a deep breath and said, "It's something you share with your special someone. Like a boyfriend or a girlfriend."

Sai nodded slightly. "Sakura said something like that."

Ino's ears perked at that. "So you _are _intimate? When have you two started dating? Who asked who out?"

There were too many questions that he felt slightly overwhelmed. "We started dating about a week ago. I'm not quite sure who initiated it, but there was no mistaking that she kissed me first."

That made Ino squeal happily. Women were just weird.

"And if you're asking me if we are intimate, I don't really know."

Ino's face scrunched up eagerly. Sai had read that women liked this kind of talk. "Well, you kiss, right? And maybe cuddle a bit?"

Sai tried to recall moments with Sakura. "Uhm, we kissed before we started going out, and there were times when we snuggled a bit." He decided to leave out the fact that they snuggled inside an underground cave when they got separated from Naruto in their last mission together.

"Wait a minute. This kissing and snuggling, was this _before _or _after _the bath house?"

"It was after… Does that hold any significance?"

Ino could only shake her head. "So you spent three days alone with Sakura in a romantic suite and nothing happened?"

"I touched her right shoulder when she got drunk with chocolates," Sai said defensively.

"That barely qualifies."

Now Ino was seriously starting to plant doubts into his head. "What was supposed to have happened? And I would be really grateful if you just say it straight out."

But of course this was Ino. Ino _never_ said anything straight out. "If you had done it the right way, you could have scored."

_Scored?_ Another vague term. He decided that he was done talking to her. "Can I go now?"

Ino laughed out loud. "You guys haven't done it, have you?"

Sai groaned. "Done _what_, exactly?"

"Have sex."

Sai narrowed his eyes at her. Sakura had done the same thing to him before; underestimate him. "Is having sex that big a deal in a relationship?"

"Yes," Ino replied, flat and quick.

Slightly taken aback, and very much wondering where he now stood in the argument, Sai asked, looking hurt, "Why?"

"Because it's the most primitive, most Neanderthal language men can understand. Definitely better than talking."

"It is? How so?"

"Men get into less trouble making love than talking? I don't know… I guess it's the greatest form of intimacy between couples."

Sai leaned in closer. "So having sex is like telling each other you love them?"

"Supposedly, yes. Though some do it just for the heck of it."

"Or because it feels good," Sai offered matter-of-factly.

Ino's face flushed with indignation. "You beast! Don't tell me you've slept with other women?"

Sai looked at her coolly. "Do I not look able enough to you?"

Ino shook her head hastily. "No, no! It's not that. It's just that… well, your background and all…"

"There are women in ROOT too, if that's what you mean."

This made Ino wish she never asked him in the first place. "Oh, God."

Sai personally didn't care what she thought. He leaned in closer, really interested. "Would you consider having sex with me?"

That earned him a slap across the face, and he saw the wreath she was holding fall to the ground.

"What did I do?" Sai asked, holding his stinging cheek, and inside his head compared how much Sakura's punches hurt more than Ino's.

"How dare you!" Ino snapped, shaking a fist at him.

"I was speaking hypothetically." Sai rubbed his nose. "Besides, I don't want to have sex with you because you scare the heck out of me, and most of the time I don't know what you're saying. Not to mention you – "

She slapped him on the other cheek, this time not looking quite scandalized as earlier, but a bit offended. "Well, for the record, I wouldn't want to sleep with _you_ either."

Sai made his head work, looking for a remedy to the damage he's done. "I had to ask you because you seem to be knowledgeable with the affairs of the heart. I – " he lowered his gaze, hoping he looked pitiful enough. He had read somewhere that acting like a wide-eyed puppy was an advantage when it came to angry women. "I'm just insecure because you pointed out that most people who are attracted to each other sleep together and I was wondering… from a woman's perspective, if I matched up to the standard."

Ino was eyeing him uncertainly, but after a while softened and she picked up the forlorn wreath with one hand. "Sakura and I are different. You can't ask me things and hope that she'd be saying the same."

"But I heard that you two have the same taste in men."

That seemed to hit the spot. The sad expression on her face confused Sai, though. "I guess, yeah, we used to…"

Sai nodded. "So if you'd want to sleep with me, chances are _she'd_ love to sleep with me too, right?"

Ino's hand clenched into a fist and it was obvious she was trying to control her temper. "First of all, you and Sakura are already dating, and I am not that kind of girl who'd stoop so low as to destroy other peoples' relationships, when I am more than capable of getting my own man."

"Then why don't you have your own man?"

"That's irrelevant to our conversation," Ino snapped.

"Indeed," Sai said. "So you think I am doing something wrong?"

"I'm not sure. I haven't really seen you together since I came back from my mission." She started to think it over. "You do _sleep _on the same bed, right?"

"She's provided me her extra bedroom but I don't sleep there, because I end up sleeping on the couch while waiting for her to come home from work."

"So, you don't sleep together?"

"Uhm, no. Not of late…"

"Do you kiss?"

Sai blinked. "She flicks my nose. All the time, for some reason. And I take the advantage by grabbing her hand and kissing her then." He wrinkled his nose. "I don't know why she keeps on bullying me that way. I told her I don't like it when she does it."

Ino made a small sound coming from the back of her throat. "Has it ever occurred to you that she may be doing it on purpose because she'd _like_ you to kiss her?"

"All she needs to do is ask me nicely…"

Ino sighed. "It's because women don't feel entitled to beg for intimacy. We believe that we must receive it without having to ask, so we send out tiny hints that we hope you men would pick up on. It's a girl thing." She grinned naughtily. "Chances are, she might be flicking your nose because she wants you to go to the next level. Have you even considered that?"

"No," he said shortly. And meaning it.

Ino patted his good arm. "Think it over, lover. And I promise I won't tell Sakura that you actually tried to seduce me and invited me to sleep with you, however hypothetical the invitation was."

It took him a while to realize she was blackmailing him.

Sai bit his lip. "Ino?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think it's possible for people to date another without the attraction? Because I don't think Sakura is attracted to me."

This made Ino raise an eyebrow. She looked him up and down twice over, then said. "I don't see how you can be insecure, what with a body like that." With this, she floundered away, hips swinging from side to side.

Sai self-consciously covered his stomach, even though he wasn't wearing his ANBU uniform. Ino had that look on her face so very similar to that time when she pinched his belly button without warning. It had hurt like hell.

* * *

Sakura tapped her foot impatiently, glancing at the clock for the sixth time that hour. Sai was late for his hospital appointment, and she was getting hungry. It was a good thing Mondays weren't too busy in the hospital, or she would have filled up his reservation for someone else.

"Isn't he here yet?" Miya asked her as she gingerly placed the 'Out to Lunch' sign on the reception desk.

"Not yet," Sakura said absentmindedly, looking over the double-doors of the hospital. "But he should be here soon. I'll wait a few more minutes. You go on ahead without me."

The nurse gave her a knowing look. "All right, Sakura. Would you like me to bring you something to go?"

"It's fine, Miya. Thanks."

The woman left with a wave and Sakura headed to the office with a sigh. She shuffled a few papers on her desk and was about to sit down behind it when the door slid open to admit a very hassled-looking Sai, messy-haired and red-faced, as if he had just been running.

Sakura calmly allowed herself to sit, then glanced at an imaginary wristwatch mockingly. "Look at the time. Did you get lost on the way?" she asked sweetly, smiling.

Sai shook his head, not recognizing the good-natured joke. "No. I ran into Ino and she interrogated me for a while." He sat on the chair opposite her. "She knows we're living together, by the way."

Sakura froze. Telling Ino about something was equivalent to telling it to half the village. She rested her head on her hand, breathed deep and let it out in a huff. "You told her?"

"She asked me why I wasn't home all the time she tried to drop by."

"Why on earth would she drop by?" Sakura asked, bewildered.

Sai simply shrugged. "I didn't see any good reason to lie about it, so… I'm sorry." He said when he saw Sai's reaction. "Should I have said something else?"

Sakura simply gestured for him to sit on the bed behind him. "You and I both know you're bad at lying, Sai. And besides, she's Ino. She'd have eventually found out from the vine, and then she'd make a fool of herself by making strange renditions of the story. It was better it came firsthand."

Sai, looking relieved that he did not, after all, mess things up, hopped on the bed, swinging his feet loosely like a kid. Sakura brought her medical kit with her and placed it on the bed beside him. "How's the arm?"

"Itchy."

Sakura laughed. "Yeah, we all hate that feeling." She tweaked his fingers protruding from the cast lovingly and smiled when they twitched. "Does it hurt?"

"It itches."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I know, I know. I'll get it off soon."

He grinned.

"So," she asked nonchalantly, hoping not to sound too curious. "You're late half an hour, Did Ino ask any more weird questions?" Knowing Ino, she would have abused Sai's innocence to dig up dirt about their relationship. That was probably one of the reasons why she wanted to keep it private. Well, they were not actually going to the extent of not wanting to be seen together, but she thought that it was not necessary for them to go out of their way to tell everyone within their social circle. So far, no one but Ino had asked about it, but if ever someone else did, she had no plans of denying the truth. _When _they ask, that is.

Sai nodded. "She asked me if we were _doing it._"

Sakura dropped the surgical scissors she had plucked from her kit, and it clattered to the floor. She bent over to pick it up, slightly winded. "What did you say?"

Sai shrugged, as always, that perpetually serene expression on his face as if they were talking about the weather. "I told her the truth, and that no, we don't have sex."

Now, that would have held enough humor to last Ino's sorry and miserable life. Sakura pulled a stool towards her, not trusting her legs to support her weight. Sitting down in front of Sai, she started to pick on the bandages. "And what did she say?"

Sai blushed. "She didn't really press on the subject much." He was such a bad liar.

Sakura grinned in spite of herself. "I highly doubt that, but all right."

She worked in silence, with Sai sometimes touching her hair, and her face. She would simply swat his hand away when he touched places that tickled her, and he would pull back, but his hands would be back on her face after a few seconds. She found this, although very work-inefficient, quite endearing. When he traced her eyebrows with the tip of his finger and Sakura looked over to meet his gaze, he was smiling.

"One of these days, I would like to draw you," he said silently.

Sakura, who did not know how to respond to such, merely nodded and returned to her work. "Sure, Sai. I guess it would be interesting to be drawn." She narrowed her eyes at him, scissors poised in mid-cut. "Knowing you, you'd probably make me take off my clothes and draw me naked." For some reason, she had found herself in situations with Sai that involved the absence of clothing.

Sai nodded seriously. "But only if you want to."

Sakura blushed and turned back to her work. And it was another moment of silence to add to their many moments of silences. That was until Sai had to ask her another one of his uncomfortable questions.

"You don't find me attractive at all. Do you?"

Sakura tried to ignore him as she successfully detached the shell of a cast and discarded it on the tray sitting on Sai's other side. When she wouldn't answer, Sai kept on talking

"Because Ino told me earlier that couples usually show the greatest form of intimacy by making love and w – are you okay?"

Sakura had choked on her own spit at hearing what Sai had just said. She coughed violently and Sai worriedly supported her with his arms. She shook her head, brushing him away. "I'm fine…" she rasped.

Sai returned on his place on the bed, eyeing Sakura doubtfully. After a few moments he looked away, falling silent.

Sakura recovered quickly, then turned to Sai. "Sai, what made you think I'm not attracted to you?"

Sai shrugged, a lost expression on his pale face. "I don't know. We had this same conversation in the bath house, and you never really answered me when I asked you the same question, so I thought… well…"

Sakura felt her heart leaped while she watched him struggle for words. What he said was, in fact, not true. She flicked his nose while he was unaware and he jumped a bit, surprised and irritated at the same time. "Can't you see yourself in the mirror? Look at you! You're young and good-looking and very, very talented. Why do you have to ask other people if they find you attractive?"

"I don't necessarily ask other people… Well, I asked Ino earlier, and she was harder to understand than you. But now that I look at it, your answer is the only thing that matters." Sai looked at her again, pleadingly. "You're not attracted to me, are you?"

Sakura raised her hands in a gesture to show complete bewilderment. "_I am!_" Her face burned when she heard herself admit that. "I find you very, very attractive! And… sexy…"

Sai still looked like he thought she was bluffing. "If so, then why don't we sleep together?" His hands were instantly on her shoulders.

Of all the embarrassing things Sai had asked her, this has got to be the top of the list. "We've slept together back in the bath house remember? Well, it was more like you sleeping and me being knocked out, but you get the picture… Did Ino put you into this? Because if she did, I'd be more than glad to tell her to leave you alone… But you're attractive! Very! And I would love to sleep with you! I mean… yeah…"

She was babbling like crazy, she knew it. It was a good thing Sai suddenly pressed his lips onto hers to stop her making a fool of herself. He tasted like toothpaste. Momentarily distracted, she did not even notice that both of them had gotten to their feet, Sai's hands all over her and was now tugging at her vest. He pulled back from their kiss, resting his forehead onto hers.

The expression on Sai's face was another first for Sakura. Straight dark bangs spilling over heavy-lidded eyes, mouth half-open with a bit of tongue resting on his straight teeth. And he looked so damn good to her at that moment "Make love to me," he ordered huskily.

Sakura's eyes widened as Sai rammed her against the sliding door. "_What? NOW?_"

Sai pressed his length against her, once again taking her mouth into his, and Sakura felt her knees go weak as what Sai was feeling suddenly took her over as well. But being the clever girl that she was, her hand shot out behind her, and groped for something that needed to be taken care of before she surrendered to him.

_Where's the goddamn lock?_

She found it, turned it with a shaky hand just in time before Sai swiped her off her feet to the bed where she had taken his cast off. One moment she was protesting, the next she was tearing at his clothes.

And in that experience, there were two things that Sakura actually realized.

One, was that Sai wasn't lying when he told her he was quite _'handy in bed'. _

And two, was that this was the best damn lunch break she's ever had.

* * *

_**FACT: I cannot and do not write smut, and I do not intend to write in graphic detail about how a man/woman can feel the earth moving under them when they orgasm… because I don't think I have the skill to capture such things with words. **_

_**Meh, maybe one of these days, I'll give it a shot. XD**_

_**Anyway, big plot development here! Sasuke! XD**_

_**Reviews are loved! **_


	14. Chapter 14: Anxiety

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

_**

* * *

**_

Aside from the momentary guilt of having defaced the holy walls of her workplace, Sakura felt strangely elated. Having sent a very happy, punch-drunk Sai– who had showered her with kisses before he let her chase him away –before everybody came back from their break, she went about work with her head in the clouds, and it seemed like she was having a very hard time concentrating on alphabetizing the names of her patients in her card box.

Miya caught on to her mood almost instantly.

"Did something happen that I should know of?" the receptionist had asked her curiously when she returned to her desk.

Sakura could only give her a knowing grin as she deposited a few unused ball-point pens on the counter. "Now, whatever do you mean?" And she went about her work clumsily with a smile on her face and a song on her lips.

She was slightly distracted from her daydreams about Sai's broad back and hard abs when Captain Yamato suddenly walked in by late evening. She had not caught up with him for quite a while now since Tsunade had sent him to the Sand to lead the renovations of the Kazekage Tower. Finally catching up on things somehow made her smile even more.

"Welcome home, Captain! How long have you been back?" she asked as she set a cup of tea in front of the man and sat opposite him in her office.

"I got back with Temari and the Hidden Sand scribe four days ago, but Tsunade had me on my toes the whole time on reports and – " his almond-shaped eyes shifted slightly. " – stuff."

Sakura frowned. "You could have at least said hello. Naruto was back a few days and helped out on a mission while you were away. He's as energetic as ever."

Yamato's face brightened at the mention of Naruto's name. "Where is he now?"

"Back in _Myobokuzan_, training. He's doing well, though." She motioned at the tea and Yamato accepted gratefully. "You've missed quite a lot when you were away."

This made Yamato smile widely. "I heard about Naruto and Hinata, if that's what you mean."

Sakura could only laugh at her captain's funny expression, like a very proud parent. "He's smitten. Have you heard of his stunt with the midnight tulips? The Hokage nearly had a fit with the disruption at that hour. The civilians thought the village was under attack."

"And here I thought getting himself a girl would have calmed him down."

"Naruto? Never."

It was Yamato's turn to laugh. "So tell me. How's Sai? I haven't seen him since he was brought to the Hokage for scolding."

Sakura, fighting the urge to blush at the mention of the name, nodded and said, "Doing well than expected. There are times when he would end up confused with certain emotions introduced to him, but remarkably, there are things he masters on his own." She shook her head. "He was, in fact, here a while ago. Getting – uh – "

_Getting laid._

"Getting his cast off," Sakura said quickly. "His arm's healed. No worries."

Yamato eyed her wearily. "I heard from the Lady Tsunade. She left out some details, though."

"It was a fight with Lee."

Yamato was amused. "With Gai's pupil? What does Sai have against Rock Lee? I hardly even see them looking at each other."

Sakura coughed. "A mission. Had something to do with a mission."

Yamato raised an eyebrow. "Funny. I thought I heard it had something to do with _you_?" There was a small smile tugging on his lips.

Sakura felt the muscle on her left cheek twitch, and her face flushed in quiet dignity. "Well… I _may_ have had _something_ to do with it, yes..."

Her captain, having sensed her discomfort, cleared his throat and drained his tea. "Anyway, I came here to relay an upcoming mission for the both of us in a week's time."

This caught Sakura's attention. "A mission?"

"Lady Tsunade briefed me about it yesterday. She wants us to deliver a certain amount of money to the country of Water."

Sakura felt uneasy. While missions outside the country of Fire usually required all the team members to be present during briefing, here was Yamato passing her second-hand information. "Money?" she asked.

Yamato could only grin crookedly. "Apparently, she's finally decided to pay debts to an old friend over there, And she wants us to deliver the money safely."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "A delivery mission? For a _Jounin_ like you?"

"It's the sum of money that makes it a problem, really. The Hokage's friend happens to be an owner of a Pachinko to which she lost a great amount of ryo."

"How much are we actually talking about?"

"Fifty million."

Sakura's eyes nearly popped out of her head. That's already fifty S-rank missions in total! "She… lost that much…?" she asked weakly,

Yamato let out a nervous giggle. "She was in the Water Country for two years at one point, or so Shizune says." It was a feeble excuse, but Sakura knew that this was most probably accurate. This was not the first time she had sent nin for delivery missions to pay off her debts. But still, a _jounin_ and a _chuunin_ for the job?

"A common crook could just be as dangerous as a shinobi when driven by money," Yamato said when he saw Sakura's doubtful expression.

"So, do we need to call Naruto back for the mission?"

"Naruto isn't necessary. Let him train."

"Then I'll just tell Sai later about it."

"Nope. This mission is just for the two of us."

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "But Sai – "

"Sai will be going on a different mission."

That made Sakura feel somehow a bit empty. "What kind of – ?"

Yamato suddenly stood up. "I'll have to cut this meeting short. The Hokage is waiting for me for more briefings. But I'll be in the village all week until the delivery mission, so if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

And he left with an unnecessary flourish of smoke and shadows.

Sakura bit the inside of her mouth, suppressing a groan. "Great, just what I needed…"

The elation that Sai brought her earlier had been completely wiped away by Yamato's weird behavior, and Sakura hardly got any work done after his visit.

By the time she finished scheduling tomorrow's patients, it was already eleven in the evening and she was tired. So very tired.

Stuffing her work shoes into her locker and grabbing her bag, she just couldn't wait to get home.

The one thing that puzzled her was that the couch was empty when she entered the living room, which most nights were usually occupied by a sleeping Sai. Right now, Sakura could only frown at his absence. Dropping her bag on the floor, she wondered if Sai had finally decided to use the bed she had provided him when he first moved in. Stealthily, she made her way up the stairs, and knocked on Sai's door. No one answered. She slowly twisted the doorknob, opened the door a fraction of an inch and looked inside. The bed was empty, and an abandoned easel was sitting in the middle of the room. The canvas was an abstract swirl of pinks, purples and blacks that made little sense to Sakura. Come to think of it, many of Sai's paintings made little sense to her. He seldom showed her his works, and Sakura never did demand he share his hobby. Admittedly, there were times she was curious about it, but being nosy was never her strong point.

Closing the door silently, she sighed and did a one-hundred eighty degree turn to face her door.

And frowned.

Her door was slightly ajar, and Sakura could only suspect that Sai was going to ambush her the moment she entered her room.

Deciding that she was just too tired to care, she pushed the door open and braced herself, but was slightly surprised to find the room dimly lit, and Sai was on her bed, fast asleep. He was still in his day clothes, as if he did not plan to fall asleep at all, one hand on his chest, the other stretched over his head. His skin looked extremely pale against her pink sheets, and his mouth, half-open, was frozen into a tiny smile, as if he were dreaming about something very amusing.

Closing the door behind her, she untied her forehead protector from her hair, placed it on her dresser and kneeled by her bed, examining her boyfriend's face. She felt her face break into a smile as she leaned her face closer to his.

Who would have thought that she could actually appreciate him like this, sleeping on _her_ bed, waiting for _her_ to come home in _her_ house, after making _sweet, passionate love_ to her in _her_ workplace?

Blushing slightly at the memory of having had him in that moment, being one with him, she reached out to the hand stretched over his head, hoping to tuck his arm into the comforter covering him chest-down, but was surprised to find something clutched between his fingers.

It was the photograph of the original Team Seven. Quite unsure of why Sai had decided to bring the picture to bed, she plucked the said thing from his hand, gave it one lasting look, and replaced it on her dresser.

Sai moaned silently, and shifted his head to the side, causing locks of pitch-black hair to spill over his porcelain-white face.

Sakura still not get over the fact that she found satisfaction in just staring at him, and she wondered how such a beautiful face could have been hidden behind an ANBU mask all this time. Reaching out to touch his face, she froze in mid-action when Sai's eyes fluttered open. Fingers poised a few inches away, Sakura dropped her hand on the pillow. "Hi there," she whispered.

Sai blinked once, twice then reached for her hand with his. "Hello," he greeted back, giving her palm a loving squeeze. "How was work?"

Sakura shrugged. "It couldn't end fast enough. I'm going to go get changed," she said and was about to shake her hand free from Sai's grip when he suddenly pulled her to him, once again surprising her with how strong he was. In all the years she had known Sai, it was only that time – in the hospital when he had trapped her against the sliding door – that he decided to impress upon her his strength. In the past, she had always thought herself stronger than he, and she took pride on that fact that she could put him in his place with just one smack in the jaw.

But it was only today did she realize that her punches were effective on him only because_ he had let her_. The fact was proven with how easily he had flipped her over the bed, and when she opened her eyes – she did not even realize she had closed them – she was sprawled on top of him in such an obscene position that she felt even her hair roots blush.

"I've missed you," he murmured as he buried his face into her neck. "You smell of sweat and disinfectant. Have you always smelled this nice after work?"

Sakura tried to squirm off him. Sai trapped her in a tight embrace. "I usually stink more on busy days. Look forward to it."

"Oh, I am," he drawled sleepily, sliding her gently beside him and pulling her against him.

Sakura poked his cheek with her nose. "So who gave you permission to take over my bed?"

"I took the liberty in conquering your sleeping quarters while you weren't here. Because I knew that if you _were _here, you would have tried to defend what's yours and I would have been banished from this house for all eternity."

Sakura laughed dryly. "Ha-ha. Yeah, and then where would I be?"

Sai pulled back and looked at her. "Will you miss me?"

Sakura shook her head. "Not one bit."

That made him frown. "Really?"

Sakura grinned. "I was kidding. I just saw you this lunch but I couldn't wait to come home to you."

That got his good mood back, and he powdered her neck with kisses.

_Nothing _could have felt better than his mouth on her skin.

So good that she forgot to ask him if he knew about the mission he was going to be assigned to in a week's time.

* * *

It was a wonder how two very different people could fit so perfectly well in so many different aspects in such a short period of time. Sai had not really thought much about how physical contact contributed to a relationship, but for the first time, he had concluded that the mere touching of skin sometimes spoke louder than words. And this was true now, with Sakura sleeping soundly beside him, her arms draped loosely around his torso, legs slightly touching his, head of pink hair resting on his shoulder. He could stay like this forever, if it meant being able to watch her without her knowing.

She had been tired from work, and had been quite complacent with his need to cuddle, but was only awake for a few minutes before she finally ended up falling asleep with Sai still exploring her throat with his mouth. Sai didn't care. It only meant he would be able to look at Sakura all he wanted without her being too self-conscious.

He rubbed his forehead against hers, and was about to abuse her neck once more when he heard a sudden noise from the window. One moment and he had a kunai which was handily tucked under Sakura's pillow in his left hand, and the next second, the weapon was airborne.

Sakura let out a loud gasp as both of them jumped out of bed, onto the floor.

Much to their horror, a boy toppled from the window into Sakura's room, unharmed but very, very frightened.

"_Naruto?"_ Sakura exclaimed as she relaxed her fighting stance as they watched their orange-clad teammate scramble on all fours to face them.

His blue eyes were round as he looked from Sakura to Sai, then back again. "Oh, my god! _So it's true!"_

It took Sai a while to regain composure. This was the first time anyone has walked in on him when he was with a girl. Well, simply because Sakura was the _only_ girl he's actually ever considered _his_. He thanked his lucky stars they weren't naked. He did not know what he would have done had Naruto seen _his _girl unclothed. The mere thought made him jealous already. And to think this was Naruto!

Sakura, as if finding Naruto snooping at her bedroom window one of the most natural things in the world, crawled back in bed with her back to the blonde, and pulled the covers over her. "Naruto, how many times do I have to tell you to use the freaking door when you visit?"

Naruto was shocked. "Don't change the subject! I didn't know you two were… were…!"

Sakura looked over her shoulder with one blood-shot green eye, and Naruto nearly shrank against the wall. "Were _what_, Naruto?"

"I didn't know you were _bed buddies_!" Naruto said loudly, pointing an accusing finger at the two of them.

Sai had no idea what his teammate was talking about. Reaching out to the window and retrieving the kunai he had thrown to knock Naruto down, he slipped it under the pillow, climbed back into bed and spooned Sakura, comfortably wrapping his arms around her.

Naruto screamed something that sounded like _'mghragh!'_, and the next thing Sai saw was Naruto looming over their heads with a dark expression on his whiskered face.

Sakura, who seemed to care little of what Naruto was doing, turned over and buried her face against Sai's chest. "Sai, can you take care of this for me? I'm too tired. And when he leaves, make sure to lock the window. All right?"

Sai, quite unsure if this was how normal people reacted towards their friends when they walk in on you sleeping with your partner, nodded, then turned to Naruto. "I would appreciate it a lot if you don't raise your voice too much. She's had a long day," Sai whispered calmly.

Naruto looked like he was going to explode. _"How did this happen?"_ Naruto hissed at him between gritted teeth.

"What do you mean?" Sai whispered back.

"_This!"_ Naruto gestured wildly with his hands. "I heard from Hinata, who heard it from Kiba, who heard it from Chouji, who heard it from Ino, that you two were dating, and that you sleep in Sakura's house! But I didn't know you were freaking sleeping _**with **_her!"

Sai pressed a finger on his lips when Sakura grumbled something incoherent, snuggling closer to him. "Shh! Let her sleep." He stroked at Sakura's hair, and then turned to Naruto suspiciously. "I thought you were training."

Naruto was shaking now. "I stationed a messenger frog in the Hyuuga Manor. That's how I communicate with Hinata while I'm away." He frowned grudgingly. "I'm a bit mad at you guys."

Sai returned his gaze at the blonde. "Are you jealous?" He had somehow thought that Naruto had a little crush on Sakura before.

Naruto sniffed, but shook his head. "I feel a bit left out… I'm your teammate, and I had to hear it from other people who knew it faster than I did." He blushed a bit, and Sai tilted his head to examine him.

He did not know how to react to Naruto's complaints. He did not mean to betray Naruto's trust, and most certainly did not want him to _'feel left out' _from the two of them. "It's not as if we planned this. It just happened," he explained silently.

"I know that," Naruto said, somewhat sulkily as he stopped looming over them and settled on the floor, his back to the bed, as if looking at them any more than necessary was a crime. "I'm… happy for you guys."

Sai, who was afraid to move because Sakura herself was not moving, listened to Naruto intently. "I know the feeling. I felt happy for you and Hinata when you started going out." He risked moving his head to look at him. "Have you two had sex yet?"

Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin at the question. Sai could see his ears were turning red. "That's a p-personal question!"

Sai shrugged. "You're right. I'm sorry. I don't want to be like Ino who pries too much on other people's businesses." He nodded and rested his head back on the pillow, placing his lips on top of Sakura's head. "So… is there anything I can do for you? You still seem a bit tense…"

Sai could hear Naruto shuffling on the floor, coughed then said in a very low voice, "Sakura is like a sister to me. We never did get along well when we first started out as Team Seven, and there were times when I thought she hated me." He suddenly laughed mirthlessly. "Who could blame her? We had _Sasuke_ to compare me to."

Sai did not know what to say at this comment. The name of the Uchiha being brought up made his stomach do flip-flops. _In a bad way._ His mind drifted back to the picture Sakura had on her dresser, of the original Team Seven. In that picture, Sakura was the only one who was smiling. And Sai noticed that those childlike smiles, those smiles he never got to share with Sakura then, were smiles that were not for him, but for the Uchiha.

Sai heard Naruto getting to his feet. "I promised Sakura I'd bring him back. And I never go back on my word. But – " he made his way to the window. " – I'm glad, that she's found someone who can appreciate her being _her_. It was kind of hard, having to witness her cry because of rejection. And I'm just too stupid to say the right words to make things better for her. I'm just glad that at least it got to be you."

Sai blinked. "Naruto…"

Naruto laughed. "Because you say stupider things than I do, and now Sakura has a new punching bag." His laughter died. "Take care of her, Sai. Or you answer to me."

And with a swift sound, Naruto was gone out the window where he came.

Sai could only hold on to Sakura, not caring if he did not lock the window as she had ordered him to do so.

Because Sakura had latched her arms around him so tight, and she was now sobbing in his chest like a new-born baby.

* * *

The next day when he was out to get new art supplies in the market place and Sakura was back in the Hospital for the day, Sai ran into Captain Yamato who informed him that he was to report at the Hokage Tower as soon as possible. He stayed a bit for small talk, then went straight for the tower, curiosity getting the best of him.

He was quite surprised to see Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru in a row in front of the Hokage. They all looked up when he entered the room.

"You didn't answer to my summons yesterday," Tsunade said accusingly, those golden eyes piercing his very skull.

Sai, of course, was unaware of her death glare. "Summons, my Lady?"

"I sent you a messenger pigeon at your house yesterday."

Hinata and Kiba suddenly coughed uncomfortably.

Sai thought for a moment, then brightened. "It's probably because I've been at Sakura's house. If you are to send me more messenger pigeons, please send it to Sakura's house instead. We are bed buddies now." He felt quite proud to be able to use the term Naruto used last night on them.

Tsunade was watching him with now renewed curiosity. "Are you two… dating?"

Sai nodded. "Yes."

Hinata, who was standing next to Sai, blushed even more, and Akamaru started to wag his tail.

Tsunade's sharp eyes narrowed. "I… see…" She started to read the folder in her hands. "Hmm. That's something I wasn't expecting. And this mission…"

Sai frowned. "Is something wrong with me now that I have a girlfriend?"

Tsunade sighed. "There's something wrong with you, _because_ your girlfriend's name is _Sakura Haruno._"

"I don't understand."

The Hokage tapped a sharp red nail on the folder. "I was expecting a full report from Kakashi in a week or so, but it seemed like this very precious intelligence couldn't wait for long." She looked up at the three of them. "Listen well. In the span of two years, Sasuke Uchiha killed Orochimaru and his older brother, Itachi. Along the way –either before or after these killings – he was able to activate his _mangekyo sharingan_. All of you are familiar with this _kekkei genkai_, right?"

All three of them nodded. Sai was all too familiar with this bloodline limit, as Danzo had once shown quite an interest in the Uchiha legacy back then. The _mangekyou sharingan_, although with heightened capability than that of a normal _sharingan,_ deteriorates the user's eyesight little by little until he goes blind.

Tsunade closed the file. "A month ago I've ordered Kakashi to go alone in the Hidden Sound Village to investigate on rumors that have been spreading about the sightings of Sasuke Uchiha's group, called _Taka_. Team Ten was also able to get a visual on the group when they went on a different mission in a village near the Fire Country boarder. Shikamaru was not able to see Sasuke along with the group, but stated that the three members of _Taka_ were in the village to gather provisions." Tsunade gestured at the folder she just closed. "And then Kakashi's report came as to why _Taka_ had been spotted many times by other shinobi."

It was Sai's turn to narrow his eyes. "Without their leader, they're becoming sloppy."

"Correct. And you know the only reason _why_ and _how_ Sasuke could be incapacitated at the moment, I presume?" she asked them.

"If he's acquired the _mangekyo sharingan_, the only thing I can deduct from this is that… " Sai started.

Kiba let out a low growl. "He's blind… "

Hinata started to twiddle her thumbs nervously. "And this mission, is to track him down and capture him?"

Tsunade nodded. "The three of you will rendezvous with Kakasi to form a team designated to track the Uchiha down. And to bring him back. Right now, we are just waiting for further information from Kakashi, but whether or not his message comes, I would like you to be ready to set out in a week's time. I do not know how long this mission will take, so I suggest you prepare yourselves to be away from the village as long as it takes to succeed in this mission."

Sai did not know what to say. His leader, the Hokage, had just ordered him to bring back to the village the only person who he could associate to violent emotions. He nodded. "Understood."

Hinata saluted. "Understood."

Kiba smirked. "Leave it to us."

Tsunade gave the team one final stare, then suddenly pointed at Hinata. "You."

Hinata was taken aback. "Yes, my Lady?"

"You will not tell Naruto about this mission."

Hinata nodded, determined. "I know."

Tsunade's finger shifted from Hinata to Sai. "And you, I hope you know well enough that if this reaches your girlfriend's ears, things could get ugly. I don't know how far you've gone with your emotional training, but I sure hope to god that you've trained _enough_ to know how one small mistake here could tip the balance. I'm counting on you, Sai, not to let Sakura down."

Sai recognized the warning in the Hokage's voice. But deep down, he knew that Tsunade did not even need to say it. Because he knew it already. "If we are not able to capture the target…?"

Tsunade's face was grave. "Then you are ordered to kill. I don't want you underestimating this boy. He was able to kill one of the _Sannin_, and an Akatsuki member single-handedly. Do not take his handicap lightly, and his underlings."

Sai nodded. "And the rendezvous point?"

Tsunade dug up a wad of papers from her desk drawer and handed it to the former ROOT member. "Team Ten had gotten quite friendly with a man named Yue Matsunaga in the village by the boarder. You may find it ironic, Sai, that the boy Team Seven saved in the ravine, belonged in that Orphanage. Hand this to Yue when you get there, in exchange for making their shelters a sort of secret base."

Sai looked at the papers in his hands. Hinata and Kiba crowded around him. "These are?"

"Bank notes. They can be exchanged for money. Team Ten was so persistent and insisted that we help the orphanage. Take care of those bank notes. It's the only thing we can spare at the moment, but when things stabilize with the funding, we'll send more help to the village when we can."

Sai nodded in understanding, pocketed the wad of bank notes. "All right. Is there anything we need to know?"

"I will summon you again when Kakashi sends word, but if not, I expect to see you three here in a week."

The three saluted. "Yes ma'am." And they were dismissed.

On the way home, Sai felt his heart getting heavier and heavier by the moment. Why was he feeling a _bad feeling _about this mission?

* * *

_**To all those who reviewed and added the story to their faves and alerts, thank you so much! XD I had to stay home today because I had my wisdom tooth extracted and it hurts like hell, but yeah, I took the time to write the update. **_

_**Anyway, the plot thickens! Dundundun!**_

_**Will they be able to bring Sasuke Uchiha back?**_

_**And if they did, how will Sakura react?**_

_**How will Naruto react?**_

_**If you review, I'll try to update faster. XD Pwetty please?**_


	15. Chapter 15: Insecurity

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

* * *

If there was one thing that Sakura Haruno took pride in, it was her Chakra control. That was because it was the only thing she beat Sasuke and Naruto at in the Academy days.

That, and because she was actually very good at it.

Come to think of it, back then, it was the only thing she had been proud of. When she was young, she had pretty much paid attention on books, and her only defining quality was her intelligence.

This, of course, had been her greatest mistake.

As she laid great importance on the theory of fighting, her physical performance suffered because of this, and her team suffered along with it. She had been virtually useless in the battlefield. She had always been the one who stayed behind with no particular value, and the only thing that had prevented her teammates from abandoning her altogether was the hard-learned lesson from Kakashi-sensei about teamwork.

She was seldom praised by Kakashi-sensei then, but whenever he did, it had always been about her great control on Chakra. Of course, it mattered little to her. All the while she had hoped more than anything for _Sasuke_ to compliment her on something.

He never did.

And then he had left.

Perhaps it had been coincidence that Tsunade became Hokage instead of the late Jiraiya, and perhaps it had been coincidence that the Fifth had been appointed at the same time she felt the need to be better.

And so she had trained. _Hard._ For two and a half years under Tsunade's critical eye. Naruto had been away with Jiraiya then, and Sasuke had gone off in search of power in Orochimaru's tutelage. Not once had she thought that Team Seven would be separated, each going on his or her own way under the guidance of one of the Legendary _Sannin_. She wondered if this, too, had been a coincidence. She doubted it. All three of them had wanted to become better, each with a certain personal goal. Naruto had always had the dream of being Hokage someday, and Sakura had started to believe that he could actually make it. Sasuke, unlike Naruto, did not have any dreams, claimed that he had a _'goal'_. And he had achieved that goal when he finally ended the life of his own brother. It was almost a decade-old desire, his revenge. And he had finally gotten strong enough to fulfill it.

But when you were already at the prime of your power, there was nowhere else to go but _down_. And Sakura believed that Sasuke had already begun his humbling descent in the Shinobi world. What could have been a promising future for the only Uchiha alive had been thrown into the wind by the avenger himself. And what was worse, he did not seem to mind at all.

Sakura had wanted to become stronger, too, because she had a goal as well. And that goal was to bring Sasuke back. And she _had _become stronger. Of all the kunoichi in her batch, she was probably the most efficient combat medic-nin with a knowledge on poisons and medical herbs that surpassed even Chiyo of the Sand. And thanks to Tsunade's training, she had grained incredible strength that was almost second nature to her by building up Chakra and releasing it with precise timing.

_She had grown stronger._

But then why was Sasuke still not back in Konoha?

Sakura frowned as she stealthily crouched under a bush, barely feeling a branch running up her left leg. This was not the time to think about things that frustrated her.

But she could not help it. She was never really a good tracker, and finding her target always made her frustrated to the point of restlessness.

She heard something rustle close by, and she dropped on her belly with the slightest of sounds. Sweat popped on her brow, and she held her breath a few seconds, wondering if her target had evaded her again. Cursing silently under her breath, she scrambled on her feet and dashed into the clearing, looking left then right. No one was there. The forest was silent except for a few bats that started to cry in the distance. By the slowly diminishing light, Sakura could tell that the sun had finally descended behind the mountains, and she scowled. She struggled at finding a target in broad daylight. It would be close to impossible intercepting it in the dark.

She flew to the nearest tree, pressed her back against its trunk, and looked to her right, swallowing nervously. She was getting nowhere, fast. And to think she wanted to get this over with before dinner…

She was about to set off into the trees once more when she felt something strike at her right shoulder three times. She cried in surprise when red and black ink splattered on her neck and cheek.

She was found!

Hoping to make a run for it, she wiped at her cheek and braced for a run when a dark figure suddenly dropped from the branches above and pressed a long, cold _tanto_ to her stained neck, trapping her against the trunk.

"If my ink pellets were enemy kunai, or worse, poison needles, you'd have lost your right arm by now," Sai said pointedly as he flipped his weapon about and pressed the hilt of it against her throat.

Sakura, setting her mouth in a grim line, had her own kunai out of its holster and into her hand in a blink of an eye and had forced Sai to back away. She took the opportunity to gather Chakra into one clenched fist and smashed it into the ground with a roar.

The soil underneath her feet started to shake and crumble and in the commotion she saw Sai once again retreat into the trees.

"Damn," she hissed to herself when the earth beneath her stabilized. In front of her remained a three-meter radius crater with roots of upturned trees poking here and there.

Sai, as Neji had once termed before, was a _'fast bastard'_. It was not everyday she got to train with an Ex-ROOT member, and although she loved a challenge, this was starting to become ridiculous. They had been on this for five straight hours.

Breathing hard, she dashed after him with a vengeance. She wanted to get this over with and go home, but it seemed like Sai, when not wanting to be caught, could go on forever with this silly game.

Leaping on a branch, she squinted into the deepening darkness and tried to listen, even when she knew it was futile. Sai could be as silent as a mouse if he chose to… and maybe even when he did not choose to. Hadn't he surprised her several times already while she was doing the dishes, coming from behind without making her floorboards squeak?

She frowned. "Where are you?" she asked herself under her breath.

"Right here," said a husky voice, and Sakura felt arms wrap around her middle, and a warm cheek press against her ear. She shuddered as his warm breath brushed against her neck.

Sakura giggled and was about to turn around when she felt something soft and sticky on her neck. And in one swift move, Sai swiped his paint brush across her throat, leaving wet, red ink streaking down her front. He was so fast she didn't even get to react. When she finally got her senses back, she slashed a kunai in the air and let out a victorious yell as she caught Sai on the chest.

Her face fell when Sai melted into a puddle of black ink, staining her toes.

"If my brush had been a _katana_, your lungs would be drowning in your own blood right now."

Sakura turned around and saw Sai sitting on one branch, a scroll in one hand, a brush poised in another. He was watching her with a curious look, as if wondering what she was going to do next.

Sakura wiped her kunai on her shorts and slipped it back into her holster, then sighed. "It's just hide and seek, you know. Did you really have to go that far?"

Sai smiled, and Sakura thought it was the first time in a long time that he had flashed her with that fake smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. This made her frown. He had been acting funny ever since he got back from his mission briefing, and wouldn't even tell her what his mission was, saying it was _'confidential'_.

And she totally respected that.

If only he didn't act so cold about it…

Sai closed his eyes at her pleasantly. "You told me not to take you lightly."

"And I told you to help me with my tracking skills."

"I did."

"No, you attacked me _twice_ and tried to seduce me _once_."

Sai's eyes opened slightly. "Did you expect that when you try to track a ninja, they'd let you? Most of the time, people who hide from you do so with the intent of _remaining_ _unfound_. They'd do anything to shake you off their trail, even if it means killing you to do so."

This made Sakura feel sulky. "Fine. But I still say you overdid it."

"If there was someone who overdid it, I'd say it was you." Sai scribbled something on his scroll, and then slipped it in his pouch, out of sight. "When you get angry, or frustrated, it interferes with your thinking and judgment. When you decided to punch a hole into the ground, not only did you destroy the perimeter which could lead to hints of where your opponent had taken off to, but you also wasted time and Chakra. Not to mention you could have demolished your target with a single blow, and if it were a capture mission, you'd have failed it with one punch in the gut."

Sakura flushed, then wiped at her neck where Sai's red ink was already drying. "Fine, fine. I'm sorry."

Sai tilted his head to the side. "Are you mad at me for pointing out your flaws?"

This made Sakura quite ashamed. She, after all, was the one who asked for his help. Why was she being this sulky then? "No, Sai. I'm not mad. Go on."

Sai was silent for a moment, then stood up, brushing his bottom. "It's undeniable that no one can compare to your strength aside from the Fifth, and you would most likely win in close combat. But here are the facts; not all enemies are dumb enough to approach you when they know you can end their lives in a heartbeat." His eyes twinkled. "_If_ you can lay your hands on them, that is."

Sakura pouted at him. She knew that she wasn't that agile, nor as accurate, but no one has really criticized her fighting style before. And because she took pride in her strength, she sort of felt a bit bruised with what Sai was saying to her. "I know my weaknesses…" she admitted.

"_Knowing _them is not enough, Sakura. The real problem is: _what are you going to do about them?"_

She scowled at him. "You sure act like you know everything. Why don't you come over her and I'll show you what I really got." She put up her fists, daring him to approach.

Sai raised his eyebrows, amused, then squatted on the balls of his feet. "If I were the enemy, do you think I'll say: 'Okay! Sure!' and waltz my way over there? I don't think so. I wouldn't come a hundred feet near you in a battle if I could help it."

"You're no fun," Sakura grumbled as she too, mimicked him and squatted. "But you know I can beat you if I catch you."

"The operative word being _'if'_." Sai smiled. "I was a ROOT assassin. I may not have your brute strength, but I was built for stealth, agility and dexterity."

"Aren't we _humble._"

"I'm just telling you the truth." He pointed at his bare abs. "I don't wear this uniform just to expose my stomach to the enemy. This uniform was made for assassins – for _speed_. But I don't think I need to tell you that it provides little to no defense." He curled a finger at her, motioning for her to come closer. "That's why I make sure I _never _get caught."

Sakura looked at his hand suspiciously, but approached him anyway. She was not expecting him to explain his strengths and weaknesses to her, but nonetheless it made her smile playfully at him when he stood up and opened his arms to her.

"Come over here," he invited.

Sakura stepped into his embrace.

And instantly regretted it a second later when Sai grabbed her arm, twisted her around and roughly pressed his _tanto_ against her throat again. "You never learn," he said, amused to no end.

Sakura groaned. "Are we still at this?"

"You never told me that our training is over," he pointed out.

"Fine. Let's end it, then."

"As you wish." Sai's grip relaxed on her arm and he lowered his weapon.

Sakura smirked. Her hand shot out, gripped Sai's wrist that was armed with his weapon, twisted around and threw him over her shoulder with a grunt.

Sai exploded in a mess of black ink, and Sakura felt her lose her footing as another Sai suddenly appeared out of nowhere and swung a leg behind her knees.

She fell into his lap with a thud.

Sai grinned at her. "Now. Let's end the training." And he gave her a passionate kiss on the lips, nearly taking her breath away.

Sakura tried to say something but all that came out were muffled sounds. Unwillingly surrendering, she wrapped her arms around his neck and got lost in the kiss. Sakura decided that the best kisses were those stolen on top of tree branches after a good five to six hour workout.

_"Ahem…!"_

Sakura's eyes popped open at the same time Sai's did, and they parted to see someone looking up at them from the clearing.

"Oh, damn. I nearly forgot about him…" Sakura whispered.

There, looking very, very displeased was none other than Konohamaru, his long green scarf trailing behind him and his arms crossed over his chest.

It had started earlier in the morning when they had decided to use today's off day to train Sakura's tracking skill in the forest. Of all unfortunate things, Konohamaru had demanded that they take him with them because Naruto was away and he was lonely. Sakura did not know if it was pity or annoyance that made her say yes.

And aside from the blackmail that Konohamaru used on her, threatening to make a _bunshin_ of Sakura herself and make that clone walk around the village stark naked.

Sakura clumsily stood up from Sai's lap and hopped down from the branch. "Wow, sorry about that…"

"I was waiting for five and a half hours, but the '_it'_ won't come and find me," he complained then pointed at Sakura accusingly. "And then I find you making out with him – "his finger pointed at Sai who joined them on the clearing " – and I bet you guys forgot all about me."

Sakura felt her face heating up at getting caught. Sai, on the other hand, did not even have the decency to look abashed.

"She had a hard time finding you, Konohamaru," Sai explained to the boy. "She couldn't find you and started to have a tantrum and I had to make her feel better."

Konohamaru was no idiot. And as Sakura looked down at the younger boy, she could have sworn she saw a second Naruto in the making.

"You make her feel better by sticking your tongue in her throat?" the boy accused.

Sakura gasped. She could not remember Naruto being this sharp-witted and flippant when he was young. "Konohamaru!"

Sai suddenly leaned down on Konohamaru, took the boy's startled face into his hands and brought his own face inches away from the boy's. "Would you like me to make you feel better, too?" he asked in his sexiest voice that Sakura had to look away.

That did the trick.

Konohamaru was silent for a few seconds, as if gathering momentum, and then spontaneously combusted. He had his arms flailing at Sai in a very weird-looking tribal dance and had leaped away from the former ROOT member in a frenzy.

_"Y-y-you stay away from me!"_ Konohamaru screamed. "I… I don't swing that way!"

Sakura's hand flew to her mouth coyly. Definitely a Naruto in the making!

Konohamaru shook a fist at Sai angrily. "When big brother Naruto comes home, I'm gonna tell on you!"

Sai blew him a kiss.

Konohamaru shrieked loudly then ran for it, tripping once, then disappearing into the darkness.

Sakura whistled. "Smooth move."

"I've learned a lot from Naruto." Sai suddenly had her in his arms again. "Now where were we?" He had his face buried in her hair in a second.

Sakura giggled like a schoolgirl.

* * *

Sai blew at his miso soup leisurely, then stared at it as if to look for any signs of strange things floating on its surface. It was a once-in-a-blue-moon day, he deducted, when Sakura would gain some womanly confidence and decide to cook for him.

Usually, breakfast and lunch were eaten individually, and if Sai did not have a mission outside the village, they would eat dinner together. These meals, as expected, were either take out, or instant. Except for those rare times when Sakura would visit her folks and bring home her mother's heavenly cooking, Sai was never able to eat anything homemade.

Today seemed to be an exception. After their hide-and-seek-slash-training-session-slash-make-out-session in the sparring grounds, Sai had told Sakura he would like to see Kiba and Hinata for a while to talk about their mission. He had been gone barely a couple of hours, but Sakura who had been ink-abused and dirty, had already taken a shower and was humming to herself as she gently placed two plates of some yellow lumpy things on the table, followed by two bowls of miso soup and two pairs of chopsticks.

"Dinner's ready!" she had proclaimed happily, and Sai could not remember how she had wrestled him into a chair.

Sai had seen Sakura's eagerness to cook for anyone only once before, and that was when Naruto was training really hard to master a new jutsu. She had brewed together a big batch of disgusting food pills that Naruto ate only out of desperation.

The time Sakura baked him a cake, he had not even seen her crack a smile. If anything, she had been crushed completely that time when things didn't work out according to her plan. After that, he had doubted she would take a risk in the kitchens anytime soon. But here they were, sitting with lumpy things on plates situated in front of them, and an expectant Sakura was looking at him with wide eyes.

Sai smiled at her over his bowl, took a deep breath and took the plunge into the possibility of food poisoning for the second time that month.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered.

"What?"

"I said thank you for the food." And he closed his eyes and sipped.

His eyes popped back open after a second.

Sakura was alert, a glass of water already in her hand, ready to hand it to Sai if he ever choked.

"How is it?" she asked uncertainly when Sai wouldn't speak.

Sai blinked, looked down at the bowl, and took another mouthful. "I cannot believe it myself, but this tastes… good…!" And he was not lying when he said this.

He had read in romance novels about wives and mothers making great miso soup, and although he had never really tasted soup that was made especially for him, he imagined it would taste _just_ like this; not too salty and not too bland, with seaweed and bits of tofu in it, which he picked up with his chopsticks after draining the bowl.

Sakura was watching him with the curiosity of a child, her mouth half-open, her cheek pressed against her knuckle.

Sai pointed at the yellow thing on his plate. "What is this?"

Sakura flushed a bit. "A rice omelet. When my mom makes one, it usually looks better – more appetizing…."

Sai poked the rice omelet with his chopsticks and was surprised at the fluffiness of the eggs. He quickly scooped some up and stuffed it in his mouth. His eyes closed pleasurably. "This tastes wonderful…"

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "_Really_?"

Sai grabbed the plate and started to shovel chunks of egg into his mouth. "I would not mind eating this everyday, if you would make it for me."

Sakura, who did not seem to be used to getting praises for her cooking, was still dubious. "You're just saying that to me because you're trying to make me feel better."

Sai looked at her, chopsticks poised between his face and the plate, forcefully swallowed the rice and eggs in his mouth. "Why would I want to make you feel better? Are you not feeling well right now?"

Sakura sighed at him in frustration, as if he should have noticed something so obvious, and reached out to pluck something from his cheek, which he found out to be a grain of rice. "Because I totally stank when we were training." She licked her finger of the offending grain and buried her face in her hands. "I sucked big time."

Sai looked down at her pink head of hair as he replaced the plate on the table. He never really took Sakura for self-pity. In the years they had been teammates, she had always shown confidence in whatever she did. The certain faults she had in her fighting style were not new to Sai, but he had never taken the liberty to point it out to her, simply because he hadn't sincerely cared about it until they started going out. "You did not suck. You had me on my toes the whole time." This was a lie. Running away from Sakura had been a piece of cake, because she always left a few second intervals between her attacks and Chakra charges that they had started to become quite predictable.

But of course, Sai was a bad liar. Sakura peered between her fingers angrily. "How many times do I have to tell you that I never liked being patronized?"

Sai shrugged uncomfortably. "I wasn't patronizing you. I just want to say that…"

"That _what_, Sai? I barely had you sweating then."

Sai took a deep breath. He was starting to lose his patience, too. And this had _never _happened before. He guessed this came natural because he was getting quite familiar with a lot of emotions lately. But still, he did not have to like this emotion. It felt like a noisy fly was buzzing somewhere close to his ear, and no matter how he brushed it aside, it would always come back. He placed his chopsticks on the plate as gentle as he possibly could. It made a sharp snapping sound on the cheap porcelain.

"Did I _offend_ you in some way when I pointed out some of the flaws with the way you fight?" He had asked her this earlier, and she had said no. But he had a feeling that she was not very pleased with the outcome of their little spar.

Sakura dropped her hands on the table. "I wasn't _offended_," she said crisply. "I just wasn't expecting I was this weak…"

Sai groaned inwardly. "You are not weak. You are the strongest girl I know. All I'm saying is that there is always more room for improvement, and training for it can enhance your skill greatly." He gestured a hand towards her, pushing what was left of his rice omelet aside. "You've trained for Tsunade for two and a half years, and you've gotten strong with that, but after that, have you really been training at all? You've become a medic ninja and resigned yourself to the hospital. And that in itself is good, but then you can't complain about being weak when you haven't done anything to level up after that."

Sakura looked away but didn't say anything.

Sai tried to catch her eye. "When Naruto left the village for three years with Master Jiraiya, you didn't waste your time and trained with Tsunade. When Naruto developed his new jutsu, you were sitting around and watching. Now, he is training to be a Sage. What are _you _doing?" He leaned back on his chair. "Are you content with how things are with your level as a ninja? Do you think that you can't get any stronger than this?"

Sakura rubbed her cheek self-consciously. "It never really crossed my mind…"

Sai snapped his mouth closed. He had pushed her to the edge where he knew that the conversation was going to lead to that uncharted territory that was Sasuke. "You gave up trying to be strong when you found out Sasuke wasn't coming home even after his revenge. Am I right?"

Sakura snapped her head to face him. "No!"

"And Naruto, who still hasn't given up, is training his ass off because he still believes that he can drag Sasuke back to the village, even if in pieces."

Sakura suddenly stood up with such force that her chair toppled backwards. "I never said anything about Sasuke. This has nothing to do with him!" She clumsily turned around, picked up her chair and sat down with a huff.

Sai leaned forward. "Then why have you stopped training?"

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest, looked away, blotches of pink on her cheek, probably from embarrassment or indignation. "Because I just stopped caring…"

"About who?" Sai asked gently, and he reached out his hand to her.

She looked at his outstretched hand reproachfully, before sighing and unraveling her arms from her body and touching his fingers. "I'm sorry, Sai. You hit the nail on the head. When Sasuke left, I had wanted to become stronger, to be able to bring him back to the village was the only thing that mattered. We had a time limit of three years before Orochimaru could take over his body, and I didn't have much time. After three years, news came to the Leaf that Sasuke had killed Orochimaru, and Naruto and I had waited for him, hoping against hope that he would be coming back. But he never did.

"A few months later, news about him killing Itachi reached us as well, and that made us expect even more, but he never came back… That was when I knew that he would _never _come back to us. And I kind of lost all hope there. What was the point of becoming strong?"

Sai, with all the strength he had acquired from ROOT to shield his emotions, tried his very best to fight that ripping pain that seared across his chest. It was like hot jealousy and blind anger raged within him as Sakura talked about Sasuke that way, how she had loved him, how she had waited so long, how she had been driven to do almost anything to get him back. All he wanted to do right now was break something with his hands, but he fought the urge, deciding that Sakura's pain was more important than his.

He squeezed her hands softly. "Sasuke does not define who you are. You always thought that he did, but he can never define someone as special as you."

Sakura bit her lip, and Sai knew that she was trying to fight back some tears that were threatening to fall. Sai did not completely understand what tears were for yet, as he had never really cried before, but he knew that they were to express some sort of strong emotion, either happiness or sadness. It confused him when Sakura smiled and started to cry at the same time.

"You must think of me as sick, talking about a childhood crush like this to my boyfriend," she laughed while she sobbed, and Sai, not knowing what to do, smiled at her uncertainly. She laughed even more.

"There's a _bad feeling _inside my chest every time you mention his name, and jealousy doesn't seem to match the emotion. There is no point to be jealous of him because I don't doubt you care for me. I guess this is how you'd call, _insecurity_?"

Sakura blinked back a few tears, then wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry. I should know better than to talk about him in front of you when I know how you feel about him."

Sai shook his head. "I'm not going to keep you from speaking about him, because he will always be a part of your past. And I want to appreciate everything about you." He frowned. "Even if he's a dickless traitor who doesn't know what he's missing in bed."

At that, Sakura produced a weird sound from the back of her throat, and she burst out laughing.

Sai could only stare at her. "It wasn't a joke. I meant what I said."

She laughed even more. "I know, Sai. I know." She tried to calm down, then pushed the plate of his left-over rice omelet back to him when she finally caught her breath. "No one's praised my cooking before. I'm kind of glad you liked it."

Sai, distracted by the omelet, lunged for his chopsticks and continued to devour the food at high speed.

Sakura watched him as she continued to dry her face with the back of her hand. "So," she said silently. "You're leaving tomorrow night for your mission, right?"

Sai nodded wordlessly.

Sakura grinned. "Captain Yamato and I are leaving tomorrow at noon for the Water Country, to Hokuseki. We'll be gone for a week and four days." She scratched her forehead consciously. "You'd be back by the time I come home, right?"

At this, Sai suddenly stopped eating. Tsunade had not given them a certain deadline for the mission, it being S-class. Though he wished Sasuke would just give up and come peacefully, there were strange feelings inside him that made him wish the Uchiha would give him an excuse to terminate him.

Sai smiled at Sakura warmly, trying to disguise the grotesque images of the creative ways he could kill Sasuke Uchiha. "I'll try my best."

And he resumed eating his omelet.

* * *

_**I wish I could write better fight scenes, but I just suck at them. XD**_

_**The following chapters would probably lack fluff you readers would love, but we can't always have them happy all the time. Lol! Tying to nuzzle my way to the climax, and I sure hope I get it done all right.**_

_**Thank you for those who reviewed! You guys make my day, really! Hugs to you all!**_


	16. Chapter 16: Uncertainty

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden. **_

* * *

Sakura shielded her eyes as she looked up at the sky to check the time. Having left the Leaf three or so hours ago, she scolded herself for being homesick already.

Earlier that day, she had had her pack ready for her mission with Captain Yamato, and had been busy all morning shuffling the hospital shift for her subordinates while she was gone. Because of this, Sakura had barely been able to talk to Sai for more than a couple of minutes. The former ROOT member was busy with preparations with his own mission as well, and had spent majority of the morning at the Hokage Tower for briefings with Kiba, Hinata and Team Ten.

Sakura knew she did not have the right to question the Fifth, but she was starting to wonder what Sai's mission was about. This was one of the very rare opportunities he was grouped with probably the most efficient tracking team in the village, and it made Sakura wonder what could have been so important as to send a group of their caliber.

She had decided that this was not the time to be too bothered with someone else's mission, as she too, had but a very long way to go before they reached their destination, having to reach the large cape to the south and take a boat to one of the smaller islands before they reached the mainland of the Country of Water. Sakura had been quite doubtful about this mission from the very beginning, as she didn't really know Tsunade had debts that concerned other countries.

"Are you sure she's been to the Water Country for two years?" she had asked her Captain many times within the week.

Yamato, who was already more than annoyed from having her ask about it and still not believe him, said, "For someone who wants to run away from a bloody past, you'd think she won't go as far as the boarder?"

That had shut Sakura up. She knew of her Master's past, as Shizune had been more than willing to share about juicy information about Tsunade when they were alone and getting drunk. She guessed if _she_ lost everything in her village – her family, her lover – she would have wished to leave it all behind too…

_And bury myself in a fifty million ryo debt in a foreign country? I don't think so…_

But it was too late. The thought of Tsunade's lover made her think of her own. The only time she was able to say goodbye to him was the moment she had set off for the village gates, where Sai had intercepted her.

"These are for you," he had said and dumped into her hands a very, very heavy brown sack, which she discovered a few moments after to contain black ankle weights. She turned one over and winced when she saw the faintly written _''60 lbs'_ on each of it on the leather.

"For training your speed," he had explained unnecessarily, then leaned forward and kissed her lingeringly on the lips, not even caring the least that Yamato was watching them with curious eyes.

"Be safe," he had added before running back to the Hokage Tower.

And right now, as Sakura bent over and adjusted the ankle weights she had strapped to her shin guards, she suddenly felt a sudden desire to see Sai.

Yamato, who was sitting under a tree not too far from her, snapped the cap of his water bottle closed and turned to her. "Something on your mind?"

Sakura sat down on the rock near her and shook her head. "Aside from the utmost disbelief that my Master had lost fifty million ryo to gambling, nothing in particular."

Yamato had to laugh. "It makes you think that the Hidden Leaf's Legendary Three composed of nothing more than a drunk gambler, a porn-writing lecher, and a power-hungry necromancer."

That made Sakura laugh with him. "Good that their names exceed them."

Yamato stuffed his water bottle into his pouch. "I can't believe she actually pulled me out of ANBU to be your team's temporary leader, only to have Naruto spirited away to Myobokuzan. Now I'm stuck doing errands for the Lady Tsunade instead."

Sakura raised her eyebrows at the man. "If I didn't know you any better, I'd say you were complaining, Captain."

He smiled at her ruefully. "Who am I to complain? If it's not Tsunade, It's Kakashi-senpai who abuses me. I haven't felt this overworked in years."

"Let's hope you get a raise."

"My chances of getting a raise flew out the window the moment the Fifth decided to pay her debts."

Sakura grinned at him sympathetically. "Did you like working behind the mask better?"

"It's no different than working without it. You just get to yawn freely when the mission gets boring, and no one can ever tell."

"Huh." Sakura took out her own canteen and took a swig of lukewarm water. "So tell me, Captain. What's the difference between the ANBU Black Ops and ROOT?"

Yamato swiped a finger over his brow and looked at her. "There really isn't much to tell you that you don't already know." He shrugged. "We Black Ops answer directly to the Hokage and do all the dirty work needed to protect the village; assassinations, interrogations, Rogue-nin retrievals, you name it."

Sakura chewed on the insides of her cheek. "Sounds like fun."

Yamato grinned darkly. "If you die, no one's going to give you a funeral, because no one would know who you are. It's your obligation to destroy your corpse if you ever get unlucky enough to croak."

Sakura wrinkled her nose. "That sounds depressing. Now you're going to make me cry."

"Really?"

"Nope." She stuck her tongue out at him. "Tell me about ROOT."

"Shouldn't you be asking your boyfriend about that?"

Sakura gave him a pointed look.

Yamato scratched his head hopelessly. "Even the Black Ops know little about ROOT, because they don't take orders from the Fifth. What I do know is that they move beyond the lines of morality and humanity if it means benefiting the Village. Which – " Yamato got up to his feet and dusted his palms on his vest. " – makes you a very lucky girl for having a ROOT member who'd probably sacrifice the whole Village if it were for your sake."

Sakura was skeptical at this. "Really?" she asked dryly.

Yamato thought for a moment, then said, "Well, maybe not really. But he'd probably come close to hesitating a few seconds before he offers your life to save the Village if needed."

That made Sakura laugh loudly. "You're probably right." She, too, got to her feet, tested the ankle weights, then sighed. This needed a bit of getting used to.

"So tell me," Sakura started again. "We're not really expecting any _ambushes_ awaiting us when we cross the ocean and enter foreign territory, right? This isn't a political mission, so we can pretty much waltz right in?"

Yamato gave her a dark look.

Sakura groaned. "They're on to us, aren't they?"

Her captain hitched the backpack where the scroll containing the money was sealed. "The Water Country isn't exactly known for it's wealth. A country that's almost always wracked in civil war could only get worse, never better. Tsunade's _'friend'_ could easily order a few ninja from the Hidden Mist to steal the money from us, and make Tsunade's debt still stand as unpaid for."

"Why would a friend stoop so low?"

"All businessmen stoop low when it comes to money. And fifty million is a lot of it."

"Good point."

They set off South-East, eating their early supper on the road.

It was not Sakura's first time to be alone with her Captain, and she could easily say that they were very efficient together, not to mention roughing it was really enjoyable, sleeping in warm wood cottages. Now, if only he opened up to her more…

By the time they reached the southern boarder, it was already dark and Yamato made the usual preparations for their camp. In a matter of minutes, they had put up their shelter, built a fire and both were sitting around it as they waited for their water to boil. They took this time to polish up on their disguises.

Or at least Sakura did.

"Do I really have to be your younger sister? Because we look nothing alike," she complained.

"You're a kunoichi. You were _trained_ for deception."

"We can't deceive our way out of genetics. Can't I be your… like… distant cousin?"

"That doesn't make a difference at all."

"Fine," Sakura said. "I need something to hide my hair." She fumbled for her backpack to look for a bandanna and was surprised when she saw one dangling a few inches from her nose.

"It's not like you to space out on a simple mission like this. We've already planned this a week ago. Down to the tee." Yamato sat down across her. "Are you sure nothing's bothering you?"

Sakura rubbed her forehead, annoyed. Just as Yamato pointed out, something was bothering Sakura. The only thing that was stopping her from actually confiding in him was the fact that she did not quite understand what was eating at her to begin with. "It's nothing." Of course, there was definitely something…. _Something_…

Yamato frowned at her. This could be the first time in two years that he's pulled an unpleasant face on her. "Whatever it is, I suggest you put it on the backseat for the remainder of this mission. You know my rules, Sakura. You keep up, or you get left behind. And I don't want to leave you behind or there will be a lot of people who'd tan my hide if I do."

"I know, I know." Sakura did not need to be reminded of this. She snatched the scarf and sniffed it suspiciously. "This smells like a woman owned it." It reeked of some musky perfume Sakura had once smelled before in one of the night clubs at Otafuku Gai.

Red in the face, Yamato snatched it back. "If you're going to complain…"

Sakura grinned at him toothily and pulled at the scarf. "Not complaining, Captain. Just stating the obvious."

Yamato let go of the scarf and shrugged. "Get some rest. We leave for the Cape in four hours. And it's going to be a long day tomorrow."

She did not doubt him. With Sai's ankle weights that were already biting down on her skin painfully, she was facing a very, very tiring one week and four days.

* * *

The message they were expecting from Kakashi-sensei arrived as Tsunade had expected in the form of Pakkun, Kakashi's summoning familiar. And as ordered, Sai, Hinata and Kiba reported the moment they were called for. They were not surprised when they saw Team Ten also inside the Hokage's office.

With Pakkun explaining the coordinates of Kakashi's location, and the overall progress of the mission, the briefing took longer than Sai had expected. It seemed like the Hokage was starting to get really fed up with the number of failed missions that involved Sasuke Uchiha. Her frustration showed with the five bottles of _shochuu_ sitting on her table, all of them empty. Shizune came back with a fresh one that very moment.

After Team Ten's report of the terrain of the temporary base they will be taking refuge in, which did not take but a good ten minutes, Tsunade finally spoke.

"I'm not going to beat around the bush with this mission. I want it done with. I don't care how long it takes, as long as you find him and be rid of this problem once and for all. I don't want to be bothered by it again _AFTER_ this mission. Why? Because it gives me migraines and wrinkles and it makes me lose sleep."

Sai blinked at the Fifth and wondered if she was not kidding. By the looks on Hinata and Kiba's faces, she must be pretty damn serious.

"You are to track Sasuke Uchiha and drag him back here if it means _cutting_ _off_ his limbs. We will end this insanity that's been haunting us for over half a decade now." Her smile swam across her face like a goldfish in a bowl. "When you come home successful, we all go out for barbecue!"

Kiba leaned over to Sai. "Don't be fooled. It's the alcohol talking."

"Understood," Sai said seriously.

Shizune, who was more than used to this kind of behavior from her master, ignored Tsunade and handed Sai a scroll. "Give this to Kakashi when you meet. These are other instructions on what to do in case… you know…"

_In case we fail…_

It was always good to have a back up plan. Sai took the scroll and stuffed it in his backpack carefully.

In the span of two years that he had worked with Team Seven, there had been but two attempts to bring back Sasuke Uchiha back that he was able to participate in. And that was before Orochimaru's death – where Sasuke resisted out of his own free will, attempting to kill Naruto in the process – and after Orochimaru's death – Sasuke had killed his brother, and was taken away by Akatsuki. And no leads followed after that. It was as if the Uchiha had simply disappeared from the face of the earth and reappeared a few months ago, with news of sightings of his formed team, hopping from town to town, village to village, lining the boarders, as if he was trying to stay away but couldn't.

Sai frowned at nothing in particular as thoughts of Sakura and Naruto paraded in his head. Two years ago, he would have thought the Hokage to be making a great mistake by sending another team to take care of the Uchiha. This, he had once thought, was Team Seven's problem and Team Seven should deal with it personally.

But that was then. He would still be thinking like this, had he and Sakura Haruno not started dating each other.

Right now, things are changed.

_He's_ changed. Everyone grew up eventually, but there were some ghosts that just did not fade much over time.

Sai was so lost in thought that he didn't even get to react when Tsunade suddenly leaped from her chair. Reflexes kicking in, he smoothly leaped when the Fifth tried to heel drop him. He landed on his knees and raised his eyes questioningly at the lady, wondering what he did wrong this time.

Tsunade was grinning at him eerily. "_Sooooo_…."

Sai waited for a full minute for her to add something to her comment.

She had both her hands resting on her hips and she was showing him a great amount of cleavage that no man but Sai could have resisted. Kiba was already shaking his head, daring not to look, as it seemed like the Hokage has already done this to him before. Hinata had her eyes cast down.

Team Ten decided that that was the perfect time to leave, and all three of them slipped out of the office with barely a sound. Pakkun, hoping to see how things were going to unfold, picked his proper corner and sat down as comfortably as he could.

"Aren't _you_ the lucky devil? My apprentice actually chose to mate with you…"

Shizune groaned, saying something that sounded vaguely like, "Not again."

Hinata let out a whimper at the Hokage's choice of words, and she looked longingly at the door where Team Ten had disappeared. Kiba had already crouched down on his knees, as if expecting this to be a long talk.

And as always, Sai was keeping a straight face. "Does luck really have anything to do with it?"

Tsunade sneered. "Falling in love is like gambling, boy. You either win, or you strike out. And just when you think you've played your cards right, your luck runs out and all you have is a broken heart you can't mend and a debt you can't pay."

Sai calmly looked at her in the eye, and bared his teeth in the only reaction he could think of when he was unsure of what to feel. He smiled. "I don't believe in luck."

Her eyes narrowed. "Is that so?"

Getting up slowly to his feet, he closed his eyes pleasantly. "If I based all my performances on luck alone, then I would have failed my missions majority of the time."

When he opened his eyes, Tsunade was eyeing him strangely. He would have thought it was the alcohol, had the people standing around him not been looking at him with such curiosity. He could feel Kiba and Hinata's glare at the back of his head, and Shizune was giving him an approving nod. Pakkun in the corner was wagging his tail excitedly.

Any man could have dissolved under those stares, had they not been Sai.

In another moment, one of Tsunade's arms was around his shoulders and she was poking his cheek with a sharp, jabbing finger. "You speak as if love is some sort of S-rank mission."

Sai did not like her poking his face too familiarly, but he held it in. "As a matter of fact, I do."

Tsunade's finger froze at mid-poke. "Eh?"

Sai gently pried himself away from her one-armed hold. "I'm pretty sure someone like the Hokage has been in love at least once or twice in her life?" He did not say this mockingly. But admittedly, he let the words slip by without even thinking about it. He wished Sakura was there to at least tell him if he was doing all right with this conversation.

Shizune's face changed and she looked as if she was about to interrupt, however, Tsunade raised her hand to stop her, somewhat looking interested.

"As a matter of fact," Tsunade started, hiccupping slightly, then straightened soberly. "I loved _once_. And that was the last time I ever loved a man." She cackled like crazy after that, then abruptly cut it off, a shocked expression creeping onto her face as she realized what she had just said so casually. Quite shaken, she returned to her desk and poured herself another drink. "But then you're never going to know about _that_."

Shizune placed a hand on Tsunade's shoulder and the Fifth brushed it away. Shizune sighed in resignation, then stepped back.

Sai, not really sure of what just happened and why Tsunade was suddenly sitting on her desk after all that bravado, calmly looked at her. "If falling in love were a mission, we shouldn't base it on luck, but on our skills, correct? I don't accept failure, because it brings… _very bad feelings_. And I don't like _bad feelings_."

Tsunade stared at him from under her lashes. "What if you fail, then?"

It took Sai a moment before he could think of an answer. He shrugged. "Then perhaps it just wasn't meant to be?"

This earned him an even longer look from her before she drained her cup of shochuu. Slamming the cup on the table, she pointed at Sai with a shaky finger. "I'm assigning you as team leader on this mission until you have rallied with Kakashi."

Sai raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Kiba and Hinata gave him more wide-eyed stares. No one questioned the Hokage when she was drunk. _No one_.

Sai, he soon discovered, was starting to get pretty annoyed. Danzo was never drunk when he gave out orders. It was easier to take orders from a sober man.

"Just accept the position and let's get this over with," Kiba hissed, whose animal instinct was telling him that staying too long in that office was just not safe.

Tsunade shrugged. "You had successfully infiltrated Orochimaru's hideout once before. I hold it in my judgment that you are the better-experienced of the three."

"I was able to infiltrate the hideout because I was playing double-agent then. I doubt I would be able to pull that again with Sasuke Uchiha since he already knows who I am."

Tsunade sneered. "You're still team leader."

"I'm not good at leading. I have always been a follower."

"Then. Follow. My. Damn. Orders. You're the leader."

Slightly taken aback by her insistence, Sai nodded. "Understood."

"Now get the hell out of here."

Sai blinked. "The mission briefing is over?" He felt like he got nothing out of this meeting at all. "Is there nothing more you have to say?"

Tsunade thought for a minute, brightened then said, "Now that you mentioned it, I do have something to say." She leaned forward on her desk, smiling like a cat. "If you get my apprentice impregnated before marrying her, I will personally cut off your penis and nail it to your forehead. Clear?"

Shizune let out an indignant squawk, Kiba, getting the idea that there was nothing about the mission that needed listening to, excused himself and slipped outside the office. Hinata, not knowing if she should follow Kiba or stay with the team leader, looked completely lost and red and very, very giddy.

Sai knew that what the Lady Tsunade said was a threat. But he could not help but smile at her creativity. "Understood, My Lady."

Shizune, finally getting fed up with the ample amount of time being wasted, decided to take control of the situation. "While we all are enjoying talking about the Lady Tsunade's philosophy on love and Sai's manhood, It think it would be better if we really wrap this mission briefing? You leave in three hours. Are you prepared?"

"We have been prepared four days ago," Sai pointed out.

Shizune nodded absentmindedly and she started giving out more directions that Sai knew was Tsunade's job. In a span of ten minutes, the briefing was over, and by that time, the Fifth was already snoring on her desk.

Shizune ushered Sai and Hinata out the door, Pakkun trailing silently behind them. Kiba was waiting for them outside the hall with Akamaru slumped on the floor whining. "Shikamaru's team left, but he said they'd meet us at the gate before we leave."

"I'm really sorry about that, everyone. Today is… not a good day for Lady Tsunade…" Shizune said.

Hinata looked up at her worriedly. "Is she all right?"

"I'm afraid not. Today is… " she hesitated, wondering if she should say it. She said it, anyway. "… my uncle Dan's death anniversary…"

Hinata let out a gasp, Kiba bowed his head and a growl rumbled in his chest.

But Sai did not understand. He did not understand why a – what was it? A death anniversary? – can make the strongest figure in the Leaf dissolve into hysterics? He made a point to ask Sakura about this when this mission was over. He frowned. He was starting to miss her again. He hoped this _bad feeling _did not affect his mission.

When Shizune closed the door behind her, the three and Akamaru and Pakkun were left on the corridor looking at each other.

When no one spoke, Pakkun raised his paw. "Meet at the main gate in two and a half hours. Bring biscuits." And he ran off down the hall, his tail wagging.

Sai followed him with his eyes, then turned to his team. He had never been a team leader before, and did not know what to do. He voiced this thought out loud. "What now?"

Kiba looked at him pitifully. "You don't have to take it too seriously, Sai. The Hokage probably said that to make you suffer is all. And she did say that it's until we meet up with Kakashi-sensei. You'll be fine."

Sai nodded, wanting to believe him. "You are right."

Hinata smiled shyly at him, and it occurred to Sai that he had not really been able to work with the Hyuuga for a while since the Mukagawa Ravine mission. "Let's do our best, all right?" she said.

Sai blinked, unable to respond quickly. He nodded. "Let's do our best."

Kiba threw his arms behind his head and stretched. "Do you think we'll be able to pull this off even if we _'do our best'_? I remember having twice as much in number of us before when we tried to recover Sasuke. And we failed even then."

Hinata turned to her teammate, displeased, her long blue-black hair flailing behind her. "You shouldn't say that, Kiba. For the sake of Naruto and Sakura, we have to do this!"

Kiba smiled at her sadly, somewhat sheepish for making such a negative comment even before the mission began. "I know, I know. I'm sorry."

Sai, he soon discovered, was becoming even more confused as Kiba and Hinata talked about their uncertainties about the mission. Not that the mission seemed hard to understand; in fact it was quite basic. Track, trap, capture/terminate. Yet, deep down, somewhere in his gut, he felt a slight tug-of-war. One part of him was directing him to follow the mission description per se; drag Sasuke Uchiha back to the village. Another part of him just wanted to tear his head off.

He had to smile at the latter. The bastard was probably too strong for him to bring down alone, but the thought still did not make him stop wishing he could.

He turned to his teammates. "Like Pakkun said. Meet at the main gate in two and a half."

They nodded at him and they split up when they descended the Hokage Tower. In Sai's head, he thought of Sakura, where she could be, and if she was using the weights he gave her. He smiled at the thought, but the smile instantly vanished when he thought of the mission lying before him, because here was the truth of the matter: He was afraid that if they were able to bring Sasuke back, Sakura would once again be ravaged with emotions even she could not control. And that thought made his chest hurt for some unexplainable reason.

He looked over his shoulder and called out to Kiba's disappearing form. "Hey Kiba?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't mind bringing biscuits for Pakkun, do you?"

"Oh, crap. Almost forgot about that. Got it."

Sai went home to get his things ready, making sure to slip in extra scrolls for painting, a sketchbook to pass the time if the mission had to drag on for too long, and for some reason, one of Sakura's handkerchiefs. He looked down at the small scrap of cloth, pressed it against his face and inhaled her scent of cherry blossoms. He started to miss her terribly again.

What he did not know, was that Sakura, six hours away from the Village, was sleeping in a wood cottage and dreaming of them being together, eating lumpy rice omelets and salty cake.

* * *

_**No fluff. Probably no fluff for a while. But expect drama. Bad, bad drama, for maybe two chapters or so. And for some Sai-Hinata conversations about love and hate and rice balls. XD**_


	17. Chapter 17: Impatience

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

* * *

It appeared that Pakkun had only wanted to meet with them at the gate because he wanted to get free biscuits. Once he had received them, he had conveniently disappeared in a puff of smoke, annoying Kiba to no end. Sai had simply shrugged it off and set off for the mission at hand.

It was already first light, with the sun peeking above the horizon the moment they reached the ravine where they had rescued the boy named Kazu. The water level was already subsiding, though the current was still strong, although it had already been over two and a half weeks since it flooded. Sai assumed that with the rain finally down to a drizzle in this area, it wouldn't take long before the current stabilizes.

Before they left the Leaf, Shikamaru had mentioned something about the possibility of other people having been swept in the river other than the boy. Sai was grim. It was highly unlikely. He had been sure to comb the perimeter with his ink summons. Aside from that boy, there had been no one else.

Hinata, whose face was crunched up in concentration, tiny spider-veins evidenced the use of her _Byakugan_, shook her head. "I don't sense anyone down there, dead or alive. Chances are, they could have escaped," she said hopefully.

Sai nodded silently, not really much aware when Kiba appeared on his other side followed shortly by Akamaru. "If they had escaped, I could've find tracks. But I don't mean to be a party-pooper or anything, but I don't think we should be wasting our time here when Kakashi-sensei is waiting for us."

Hinata deactivated her _Byakugan_, gave Kiba a reproachful look. The boy looked away sheepishly.

The ROOT member instinct inside Sai was telling him the same thing, and had he listened to it, they would have been halfway to the rendezvous point already. But in his heart of hearts, he saw Sakura risking her life to save a boy that meant absolutely nothing to her, and then trying to save a teddy bear that held even less value. And he could not take it without having to check if what Shikamaru said was true, because Sai knew that Shikamaru would not have informed him of it if he did not expect Sai to do something about it.

He got up to his feet and dusted his knees. He would have to trust Hinata's judgment that there were no people down there, living or dead. "We move."

They had wasted but a few minutes on the ravine and it did not take long before they caught up on schedule, having lesser water breaks along the way, and eating on the move.

They reached the village in the border just before the sun made its descent in the western boundaries of the Earth Country.

Sai's trained eyes scanned the outskirts of the village, and he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. If he had not been informed that people lived here, he would have thought otherwise. And in the diminishing light of the sun, the town looked completely deserted to the point of creepiness.

Windows of the small, rundown houses that lined the village boundaries were like gaping eyes that bore down staring at them as they made their way through the dingy alley.

The smell was just unbelievable, which he found quite unusual for a place that screamed inhabitation. Garbage mixed with something left in the oven for too long floated from nowhere and everywhere. Akamaru's hackles were rising as they pushed forward through the village in silence.

Of course, Hinata had her _Byakugan_ activated the moment they penetrated the outskirts.

"The population is concentrated in the north-west sector of the village." She frowned in concentration. "There's an active market to the north. Two… no, three dozen people run business there." She blinked then continued. "I found the shelters. Six hundred meters at ten o'clock." She stopped walking, swallowed hard.

Sai looked over to her, stopped in his tracks as well. "What is it?"

Kiba frowned. "Did you sense something?"

Hinata nodded. "There's a large concentration of chakra in that direction. Are you sure Matsunaga is a civilian?"

Sai frowned. Team Ten did not have a sensory-type member with them, and Sai was sure that they mentioned nothing about Matsunaga's status. "All we know is that he's a caretaker of children in a rundown shelter."

Hinata's face turned grim. "I doubt that. We should be careful."

The warning was enough. Kiba had a food pill in his mouth, tucking it between his teeth and the insides of his cheek, ready to bite down when needed. Sai's fingers itched for his paintbrush.

Hinata continued with her surveillance as they went with their small pilgrimage down the alley. "We are about to enter the residential area, and they are all watching us from inside their houses. There are no evident threats among them."

Sai looked over at her in awe. He had heard of the usefulness of the _Byakugan_, but he hadn't really experienced working with a wielder of it before. Thinking of something nice to say – as Sakura suggested that saying something nice to people strengthens their bonds – he nodded at Hinata. "I'm glad you are on this team."

This caused Hinata to flush appreciatively, but she did not falter. "This could be our last chance to take Sasuke back." She looked back at him, those ivory-eyes determined.

"I know," Sai replied.

Kiba let out a small growl when one of the windows suddenly snapped shut when Akamaru tried to sniff at it. Kiba turned to Sai. "Almost everyone here stinks of fear. They don't seem to like us being here at all."

This time, it was Kiba who Sai gave an appreciative look. What the _Byakugan_ couldn't see, Kiba and Akamaru could sense – like the smell of nervousness, fear, and pretty much everything else the Hinata didn't cover. Sai wondered to himself on how effective this team could be if Shino were with them. The insect-controller was assigned a different mission that needed his specialty in the Grass country, where he was supposed to be taking care of some locusts that were terrorizing the villages there.

It took a mere seven minutes before they broke out into a small clearing lined with dilapidated windmills. In the middle of the clearing stood a large, green building with either tinted or broken glass windows.

"There are a total of thirty-seven orphans in there, and then there's Yue," Hinata informed them, then her face twisted into a confused frown. "This can't be right…"

"What's wrong?" Kiba asked,

But before Hinata could respond, she suddenly had a kunai in one hand. "He's coming!"

Sai's eyes widened at what she just said, and out of nowhere, in a flash of light and a whirl of white smoke, a man wrapped from head to foot in bandages wearing red and black robes dropped to the ground on all fours. The man, his robes flapping in his wake, dodged left then went straight for Sai, one exposed eye pinned at him with a vengeance. The man lashed out one hand, which Sai saw was equipped handily with a sharp claw made of some dark green metal.

Kiba and Hinata scattered as, in a flash, Sai had his left hand whipping to right shoulder and had pulled out his _tanto_ just in time to block the unprovoked attack. Sparks flew at the contact of steel and steel.

The bastard did not look it – in fact he looked like he was going to crumble any second – but he was strong. Sai wondered about Hinata's doubts of Yue being a civilian.

Kiba, who had flown out of the way to the side was already growling menacingly with Akamaru and was almost ready to pounce.

Sai held out his free hand at them. "No, Kiba!" He narrowed his eyes at his attacker. "We do not attack our host for this mission." Shikamaru's description fit. This guy was none other than Yue Matsunaga.

That one eye did not leave Sai's face, even when he began to talk. "What are the likes of _you _doing here?" he demanded in a voice that sounded so disembodied that had Sai not seen the bandages covering the place where his mouth was supposed to be move, he would have thought someone else had talked in his place.

"We come from the Leaf, Yue Matsunaga," Sai said, not breaking the contact between his _tanto_ and the man's claw. "Friends of Team Asuma." Still no reaction. He gritted his teeth, unsure of what else to say. "We're not here to fight! _Lower your weapon!"_

Sai was not used to conversations like these. Missions that included casual negotiation and compromise were never his cup of tea; it was always easier to slit someone's throat than talk.

Yue did not look at all convinced. His exposed eye lingered to Sai's uniform, then back to his face. "You're one of _them_," he hissed.

_One of them? _Sai had no idea what he was talking about.

Hinata, who was anxiously dancing from one foot to another a few feet away from them said, "We mean no harm, Mr. Matsunaga!"

Sai noticed that Hinata's _Byakugan_ was still activated, and he did not know if what she saw was the thing making her uncomfortable.

This was, however, enough distraction for Sai. He did not get a chance to react when Matsunaga's other hand suddenly popped out of his long robes and caught him by the throat, mean fingers closing in.

Kiba, who was done waiting for Sai's instructions, pounced.

"_No! _We don't attack!" Sai roared heavily.

Kiba awkwardly fell back on all fours. "And wait for him to kill you?" he demanded.

Sai, whose left hand still held his tanto over his head, scraping violently with Matsunaga's claw, used his right hand to pry his attacker's grip from his neck.

There was a mad look in those eyes and he watched as the bandages covering his nose rattled silently as if inhaling deeply, as if trying to catch a scent.

And at that moment, the look in that once eye changed instantly. What used to be anger and rage was suddenly replaced with something else; something softer, sadder.

The grip on his throat slackened, the claw lowered and once again disappeared in the sleeves of his robes.

Sai hadn't the slightest of clues on what just happened. His right hand massaged his raw throat, coughing slightly. His left hand still gripped his weapon just in case the man suddenly decided to attack him on a whim.

Hinata hurried to Sai's side. "Are you all right?"

Kiba turned to the man angrily. "What is wrong with you, old man?"

Yue blinked his one eye, looked at Kiba, then Hinata, then finally at Sai. He pointed one bandaged finger at the former ROOT member. "Who… _are_ you?"

Sai was slightly taken aback.

* * *

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest, looking at the fairly sized boat Yamato had produced out of nothing, slowly bobbing up and down on the edge of the beach below the southern cape just a few ways away the Great Naruto Bridge.

"Show-off," she muttered.

Yamato gave her a half-smile. "I'm good at what I do." He stood up and hitched the backpack on his shoulders, then swung it over to the stern of the boat. He let his eyes wander to the east where the first island of the water country was visible. Sakura watched him and took in his clothes. He was wearing what a normal _tedai _would wear, a low-ranking merchant, loose and quite dirty pants, a long tunic over a dark shirt, his hitai-ate shed away, replaced by a dirty floppy hat. He looked absolutely awful.

Sakura hopped on the boat, nearly stumbling because of the ankle weights Sai had given her hidden beneath baggy trousers. Her disguise wasn't at all that different from Yamato's except that she had a bandanna to hide her pink hair under a fisherman's cap. If Ino ever saw her in those, she was never going to live it down.

The trip to the nearest island was quick and there really wasn't much conversation to go on between Sakura and Yamato. Perhaps it was because they had never been to a more embarrassing mission than this one.

An hour before they had left the wood cottage in the border, Yamato had briefed her more on the mission. It had always been Yamato's good trait to play it safe at everything, and follow-ups were always something to expect. They were to meet the wife of Tsunade's friend named Shinobu Hizashiyama in the Town called Miwa by nine o'clock in the evening that day. The Pachinko place's name was Towa. The instructions were simple: Hand the money to the wife, stay until they finish counting the money, and leave.

Sakura just hated these missions when traveling and waiting took most of their time, and the actual mission could be finished in a matter of minutes. By the time they reached the first island, Yamato decided that there was enough time for them to squander before the rendezvous, and he let her wander by herself around town and told her to meet him in the eastern dock in two hours.

Of course, Sakura had no intention to _"wander around"_. At least not with Sai's loving sixty-pounds-on-each-ankle gift strapped to her legs. That, and the Water Country weather – a bit chilly for her liking.

She immediately found herself a nice enough Dumpling Shop and planted herself to the bench right outside it, a cup of hot tea and a plate of sweet bean dumplings beside her. She barely thought of where Yamato had run off to, and she honestly didn't care. Lately, the ever-responsible Captain had taken to his adventurous side. It was probably because his responsibility on keeping Naruto's pet Kyuubi at bay was shaved off his shoulders, and he was having the time of his life chasing skirts, or so did the bandanna she had on her head proved.

She whiled away her first hour watching people go on with their daily lives in the Water Country. At once point she saw several Hidden Mist Shinobi walking around in their simple grey flak jackets and forehead protectors bearing the Mist insignia. Majority of them wore face masks, reminding her so much of Kakashi-sensei. She had been informed that Mist ninja, as different as their culture was with the Leaf, tend to sharpen their teeth into something that would resemble a shark's. She but once had an encounter with a rogue Mist nin by the name of Zabuza, and _he _had very sharp teeth. She shuddered at the thought of how and with what they sharpened it with.

She took another mouthful of dumplings and automatically tried to wash it down with tea when a flash of a very painfully familiar shade of red caught her attention.

She felt her shoulders tense as she turned around to confirm her fears and she nearly had a heart attack then and there.

There was no mistaking it; that long, red, spiky hair, those glasses, those ridiculously short shorts and black leggings.

Sakura was on her feet before she knew it, and her heartbeat throbbed against her ears.

Karin's eyes locked with hers, smirked, then darted into an alley.

Sakura could only run after her, her mind completely going blank.

* * *

Sai had never been impatient in his life.

_Until now. _

Kakashi-senpai was nowhere in sight, and Yue Matsunaga had taken a liking to watching him while he leaned against the rotting fence of the shelter. At first he thought that the man was just after something, and that was when he remembered to hand over the bank notes to him.

The man had simply looked at it blankly, and Sai watched as the bank notes disappeared within his robes, already forgotten. Yue Matsunaga was back at staring at Sai with a passion. He did not even give the faintest of explanations on why he attacked Sai in the first place. But even without it, he had immediately figured out why Hinata had been so anxious. Yue Matsunaga was, in no way, _just _a civilian.

For the first time in his life, he actually felt Naruto's pain at being assaulted by the same sex. It was starting to creep him out. Kiba and Akamaru were sitting on the ground not too far away from him, and Hinata had disappeared within the shelters, but not before giving Sai a significant look, as if she wanted to tell him something.

He debated on following Hinata inside the building, but was interrupted with someone leisurely walking into the clearing, a book on his already half hidden face, the silver-grey hair fanning out his head, and those dead-fish eyes slightly creasing as if he was smiling under his mask.

"My bad, my bad! Did I keep you waiting?" It was without a doubt, Kakashi-senpai.

Sai was on guard, standing straight at his superior's sudden arrival. "We got here an hour ago, senpai," he explained.

Kakashi did not look like he was ashamed at all that he was an hour late, given that this was such a crucial mission. He looked down at Sai, then at Kiba who had hurried to join them. Sai noticed that Yue Matsunaga had suddenly disappeared.

"I was promised a three-man cell?" Kakashi pointed out, a little puzzled.

That was when Hinata came hurrying out the door of the shelters. "Sai! Sai! You should come inside and see the – _Oh!_ K-Kakashi-sensei!" She started blushing furiously.

"A three-man cell." Kakashi nodded satisfactorily. "I'm not going to lie to you. I've been had."

Sai frowned. "Been… _had_?"

Kakashi flipped his dirty book closed, slipped it inside his pouch, then sat on the ground, sighing and flexing his neck muscles. He looked tired. Sai was not surprised. Kakashi had been on stake out for over a month already, taking in little hints about where the Uchiha could be. And now he was saying he's… '_been had_'.

"That girl from the Grass was one slippery fish. A few days ago, she was just _there_. I was careless. She must have concealed her own chakra from me."

"You mean she's gone?" Sai was worried. Could they be on to them so soon? "When did this happen?"

"Five days ago."

Sai frowned at his senpai. Though he had respected this man all his life, he was starting to doubt if he had tried his best at watching over their targets. "Why weren't we informed of this change of situation?"

Kakashi stared at him with his practical eye, not the least bit offended that his subordinate was questioning him. "Because, Sai, it wouldn't matter if you knew. Because this mission has already been a hoax from the very beginning, and that I think they were already aware I was here. In fact,I think they did it on purpose to be seen all around this village because I think they are after something that only the Leaf could provide."

Hinata asked, "What do they want?"

Kakashi looked away towards the direction of the Sound. "I have a feeling that they were after… someone who was very familiar to Sasuke… a healer, maybe?" he said. "He may have underestimated the Hokage, thinking that if he started leaving certain hints of his whereabouts, the Lady Tsunade would recklessly send Team Seven to look for him. But I don't think Sasuke is aware that Naruto is away and that Sakura is – where is Sakura again?"

Sai could only feel the muscles on his arms curl as his hands clenched into fists. "We sent you a message about Tsunade's plan of keeping Sakura occupied…"

And that was when Kakashi's face went rigid. "I didn't get a message. When did you send it?"

The timing was just too perfect. "Five days ago."

"Just when the sensory-type Karin conveniently disappeared."

And it hit Sai like a ton of bricks.

The message they sent to Kakashi to assure him that none of the original Team Seven would accompany the mission contained of Sakura's sending to the Water Country with Captain Yamato.

That message was _five days old_, on the exact same time one of _Taka's _members gave Kakashi the slip.

Sasuke was blind, and it made perfect sense for him to desire a healer.

Sai felt himself waver, and he would have fallen to his knees if it weren't for Hinata, who seemed to have realized he was breathing irregularly and supported him with an arm.

He looked at Kakasi. "They're after Sakura. I have to go." And he would have dashed away on the spot had Kakashi not grabbed his arm painfully.

"You are _not_ going anywhere. You are staying _here_ to complete the mission, and that is to search and capture Sasuke Uchiha." Kakashi did not slacken his grip until Sai finally relaxed. His senpai looked at him weirdly. "You've… changed."

It took him a few moments before he realized what Kakashi meant. If he were the same person as he was a month ago, he would have simply brushed away the little annoyance that one of the targets had made an escape, and probably would have categorized Sakura as a slight hitch on the mission.

_If_ he were the same person, that is.

And _if_ he wasn't in love with Sakura to begin with.

He cursed under his breath. "Understood, Senpai."

Kakashi gave him one more lingering look, then turned to Kiba and Hinata, who though did not voice their minds out about worrying over Sakura, looked very upset with the outcome of the mission, especially when it hasn't even begun yet. "Now, don't give me that look. You know as well as I that Sakura can handle herself. And she's with Yamato! I'd trust that guy with my very _soul!_ He's dependable, and he's strong. No worries, yes?"

Little did Kakashi know that Yamato may be dependable, and he may be strong, but he also happened to be a _guy. _A guy who was presently a day away from the Leaf and having the time of his life getting a generous amount of attention from big-breasted girls who had lured him to a tavern after they were bribed by a certain red-haired girl.

Said red-haired girl was now running down the alley towards the docks, a pink-haired girl hot on her trail.

* * *

_**XD We love cliffies, don't we?**_


	18. Chapter 18: Reluctance

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

* * *

That night, Sai was not able to eat from worrying about the mission and Sakura's wellbeing. He found himself sitting in front of a fire he made outside the shelters, once in a while poking it with a long branch he found somewhere in the clearing. While alone-times during missions were reserved for his mental conditioning, Sai felt that he was just too _mentally unconditioned _to even start his habit. Thoughts of Sakura in Water Country, miles away made him worry, and the sudden disappearance of one of _Taka _after Kakashi just told them he did not receive a message that contained Sakura's whereabouts made it all the more suspicious.

There was a great possibility the message was intercepted…

He scowled. Although Kakashi had assured them that the Uchiha's left eye was completely blind, and his right eye's sight was almost close to zero visibility, he could not bring himself underestimate him. He had met and talked to the man several times when he was able to infiltrate Orochimaru's hideout, and had clashed swords with him only once.

The bastard was strong. And he didn't give a moment's hesitation to kill. That was probably one of the most dangerous aspects of all.

But then again, even if they somehow get to Sakura, Kakashi had assured him that Sasuke was not stupid enough to kill such a useful shinobi.

_"It actually reminds me when Orochimaru sought out the Lady Tsunade to heal his hands after the Third damaged him,"_ Kakashi had told him. _"Team Seven and the Sannin… the uncanny resemblance just doesn't stop to amaze me…"_

Sai was lost in his thoughts when Hinata came out of the shelters, two cups of something in her hands. He did not realize her until she had one of the cups inches away from his face.

"What are you doing out?" Sai asked her as he took the cup, discovering it was lukewarm tea.

"Same as you. Nothing." She sipped her drink and looked up at the sky. Though the village had quite a number of people living in it, there were hardly any lights on, and because of this, the star-splattered sky looked more than beautiful that night. "Are you worried?"

Sai sipped his drink, mimicking her. "Of what?"

"The mission. Sakura. Naruto. Sakura. Sasuke. Sakura…" She gave him a knowing look, a little smile. "You know, she isn't weak. She's probably the strongest there is in the batch."

"I know that." Sai scratched the left side of his chest uncomfortably. He was not used to talking to Hinata. Her eyes, those ivory-white eyes just seemed to look right through you even without the _Byakugan_ activated. "I know that, but I'm still worried. Do you think that that's a bad thing?"

Hinata raised her eyebrows, smiling ruefully. "I don't know if it's good or bad, but I _do _know it's normal. I worry about Naruto all the time, even when I know he's strong. _And _very lucky."

Sai eyed her skeptically. "I don't believe in luck."

Hinata laughed. "Or so I heard you say to the Fifth. Naruto's different. He's just… _lucky._"

This made Sai go silent. He was not going to argue with Hinata about luck or the lack of it. He kind of liked the Hyuuga, though majority of the time she stuttered when she was unsure of herself, and the way she twiddled her thumbs uncomfortably when someone was looking at her. It was weird to see her talking to him comfortably. He decided it was all Naruto's doing.

Poking the fire, he asked, "You never told Naruto of Sasuke?"

Hinata instantly shook her head. "Even if the Hokage didn't order me to keep it from him, I don't think I would have been able to tell him that the Fifth has decided to cross the line between _capture_ and _terminate_. Naruto…" she looked down at her feet. "… has a soft spot for Sasuke Uchiha."

Sai held the cup between his hands, warming his palms with it. "Have you ever been friends with Sasuke?"

Hinata smiled grimly. "Sasuke doesn't have many friends… He was always alone, and brooding. I guess that's why many girls in our batch liked him. He was just so… _unattainable_."

"Did you like him then? Or maybe, hated him?"

This time, Hinata blushed, and she began to stutter. "I-I… to be honest, I ne-never really noticed him that much… He seemed to always pale to Naruto in comparison. Naruto was always loud, and he did lots of mischievous things that were probably his desperate attempt to get everyone's attention…" She hid behind her cup of tea, embarrassed. "He didn't need to do it, though. He already had my attention even when he was just eating a bowl of ramen… "

Sai scratched his chin, drained his tea then placed the empty cup by his feet. It was not unbelievable to know that perhaps Hinata was the only one who didn't fawn over Sasuke when they were young. "I don't doubt it. Naruto is Naruto after all." This was probably something he and Hinata had in common. Probably the only thing they _would _have in common. And probably that was more than enough for a friendship.

"You have to teach me how to make rice balls," he offered, when they ran out of things to talk about.

Hinata brightened. "Of course. I'd love to."

The conversation ended with that, but the silence that followed was not uncomfortable. It was easy to be quiet with Hinata.

They were content with saying nothing when Akamaru suddenly dropped from nowhere, three laughing kids riding his back. Hinata and Sai were on their feet when Kiba landed in on them beside Akamaru, another little boy on his shoulders.

"Sai, help me!" Kiba called, panting and laughing at the same time. The kid on his shoulder was pulling on his hair roughly. "I've been giving them piggy-back rides, but there's just too many of them!"

And as if on cue, a few kids, probably the ones who didn't have a curfew, streamed out of the shelters noisily. They crowded around Akamaru and Kiba, begging for their turn.

Hinata backed away, a bit overwhelmed.

Sai, grinning deplorably and somewhat feeling a bit generous, took out a scroll from his backpack, slid out his brush and inks, and painted a number of large butterflies, probably unintentionally thinking of Sakura and her request for a tattoo.

Releasing his _jutsu_, a dozen or so butterflies the size of watermelons fluttered wistfully into the air. The orphans "_ooohh_"ed and "_aaah_"ed and the tiny crowd started to break away from the very tired Kiba and Akamaru. They split up in several groups, each to hunt their own butterfly.

"I owe you one," Kiba said, brushing his pants and jacket. "Haven't been that overpowered since Akamaru's mother gave birth to a litter of twelve."

Sai tilted his head to the right, and was about to say something when he felt the hairs at the back of his neck start to prickle again. Looking over his shoulder, he noticed a dark figure standing by the garden behind the shelter. The figure moved into the light and Sai's breath caught in his throat. Yue Matsunaga was once again scrutinizing him from afar.

Sai frowned. He did not know what the man wanted with him, but he was going to find out. The last thing he wanted was to get stalked throughout the whole mission. He gathered himself and approached Yue.

"Wait," Sai called out when the man tried to back away into the shadows. "I just want to talk."

Yue, with all the bandages and long robes, looked hesitant but did not leave. The long dark hair on top of his mummy-like head fell onto that one eye that observed Sai cautiously, like a deer at gunpoint.

Sai stopped a few feet away, just in case the man brandished his claw at him again. With his mood, he didn't feel like fighting. "Good evening," Sai started, as he read in a book that it was always better to start a conversation with a polite greeting.

Yue was ever-vigilant. "Good evening," he said shortly.

And they were silent. This was, perhaps, a bad idea after all, Sai thought. Perhaps if he were someone else, he would have been able to continue with the conversation. But he was just _Sai_…

After what seemed to be like forever looking at each other, warily, Yue raised his hand, making Sai almost reach for his _tanto_. He paused in mid action when he saw Yue was unarmed. Instead, his bandaged hand was pointing to the shelters. "Come with me."

Paranoia hit Sai like a freight train. This, he supposed, was a normal emotion to feel towards a man who had nearly tried to strangle him once. He nodded in acknowledgement and he followed Yue inside the building.

The two were silent, with only the soft _swish-swish_ of Yue's robes against his legs and the floor. Sai caught of a whiff of the man when he passed him. He smelled like ointment and burning tea leaves. Sai wrinkled his nose from the smell.

The shelter's long corridor was dimly lit, and some doors were closed, while some thrown carelessly open. Sai could see from the windows the children outside, still in deep pursuit of his butterflies, Kiba and Hinata supervising them. When he turned around to follow Yue, his sight was instantly drawn to the walls.

Ino's voice rang in his head: _"I wanted to ask you about a painting I saw in the shelters where we took the boy you rescued…"_

Sai's eyes narrowed. The halls, he saw, were peppered with crude drawings, all inside cheap-looking wooden frames. He approached the nearest drawing of a fallen apple on a patch of grass. It looked like it had been drawn with crayons. Sai touched the frame and paused when he saw a small plaque right under it. It read: _Free_-_fall_.

It was a title.

He moved onto the next. It was a drawing of a window overlooking a garden and it was raining. The plaque under it said: _Monday_.

The next drawing, and the next, and the next, they all had titles that did not seem to have any evident connection to the portrait. All of them looked like a child with a good enough imagination had drawn them.

Yue appeared beside him, and Sai almost jumped. The man was quiet, too quiet, that Sai really wondered if the man hadn't been a former shinobi.

"Did the children make these?" Sai asked.

Yue, for the first time, avoided looking at him. "He loved to draw, that boy."

Sai paused. "A boy?"

Yue took a deep breath, the bandages rattling on his face. Sai did not have to make such an effort not to look at him. He made Sai… _uncomfortable_ for some reason. "The boy was hardly a year old when I took him under my care. He was left to us by my friend who wanted to travel the world for inspiration."

"_Inspiration_, you say?"

Yue glanced at him, at his uniform, then started to move. Sai did not know what made him follow, but he just did. The man led him towards the room at the end of the hall, right beneath an open skylight. With spot lamps flanking it on either side was an enormous painting of a beautiful lady in white. She had a hairless bundle of a baby in her arms.

Sai stared at the woman hard, as if trying to decipher the color the artist used for her hair. It was a shade of dirty blond that Sai believed he hadn't tried to use before.

"This was a portrait of that friend's wife and the child who drew all those pictures on the locker walls."

Sai forlornly glanced at Yue, whose hands were pretty shifty beneath his robes. Sai's hands itched for his weapon. "Where's the child?"

"Gone. Taken, fifteen years ago."

"Taken?"

"By people wearing porcelain animal masks." His eyes shifted to Sai's body, then away. "And wearing clothes that you are wearing."

Sai felt his brow furrow. This was not news to him. He knew ROOT always tried to recruit them young, because they were easier to break that way. But they did not take people away without a reason. "What can he do?"

Yue's hand suddenly plunged into his robes. Sai jumped back a step when the older man withdrew something long and thin from his breast pocket. A paintbrush. His other hand stretched forward, and from his sleeve shot out a few feet of yellowish scroll. With a quick flick of his wrist, he let the brush kiss the scroll, and with a very painfully familiar silent hand sign, a dozen small dragonflies burst into life, some buzzing around Sai's ears before darting out of the open window to join the butterflies and the children. "He can do what I can do, because I had taught him."

Sai froze then and there.

If there was something he had learned from ROOT, it was to discard unnecessary feelings and emotions that would not benefit a mission. He had lived all his life as a tool for the Foundation, and lately he had discovered he was capable of feeling, and he was already having enough trouble as it is. Not that he was regretting anything about it, because he had discovered _something_ with _someone_ he did not know he could ever feel in his life.

But it still did not stop him from feeling utterly inefficient in battle.

And then here was a stranger named Yue Matsunaga proposing that he, Sai, who did not exist at all except for the purpose of a mission, and the purpose of loving a woman named Sakura Haruno, could actually have a _past_.

Sai didn't _need_ a past. He was already having a hard enough time with his present as it is, and he was just too busy worrying about his future.

"She has your eyes," Yue offered when Sai didn't say anything.

Sai grimaced at the painting of the woman, and felt his stomach churn violently when he saw that Yue was right.

Then he remembered something Sakura's mother had told him when they first met.

"_You have nice eyes…"_

Sai distractedly wiped his nose, then he turned away. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I can tell. Your scent, it's weak, but I can smell you. Parchment and charcoal."

Sai lashed his hand at the man, making him back away. "I _have_ no past. I _have_ no future. No _name_. No _existence_. I am _nothing_. And I am _not_ that boy."

He did not wait for Yue to challenge him. He up and left the shelter through the window, and spent the evening in one of the abandoned windmills, drawing a hundred little butterflies. He saw Hinata trying to look for him, and he guessed she already knew where he was with her _Byakugan_, but as always the understanding teammate, she decided to leave him be.

Sai felt his head ache from thinking too much.

* * *

Sakura whipped the fisherman's hat she had on her head and looked left, then right, looking for a sign of red hair in the crowd. She wished Sai had trained her better at tracking, because she knew she was sucking big time at the moment. The weights strapped to her ankles were dragging her down, and if they weren't given by Sai himself for her speed training, she would have discarded them already.

She decided to try her luck and went down the docks in a hurry. There were several fish stalls in the corner, and boats were lined in the pier, masts pulled down. She scanned the water. There was no way she could have escaped via boat.

"Sasuke was right. You _are _a weak tracker."

Sakura whirled around when she heard the voice speak from somewhere behind her.

Karin, her flaming red hair, those piercing bright eyes behind oval-shaped glasses, was on top of one of the abandoned fish stalls, her arms crossed over her stomach. She was eyeing Sakura cautiously, as if waiting for her to make a move.

"Where is he?" Sakura demanded. She did not realize she had pulled her leather gloves from her back pocket and were pulling them on. _"Where is Sasuke?"_

Karin leaped down from the roof of the stall, spreading her arms in front of her, as if to tell Sakura she wasn't armed. "I came to give you some intel on Sasuke."

Armed or not, Sakura found herself reaching for a kunai from her concealed pocket of her right pant leg next. _"Why?"_

Karin warily eyed the kunai in Sakura's hand. "Because he needs your help…"

Sakura's eyes narrowed at her, and she was already bracing herself for an attack. Once a snake, always a snake. And no one came more serpent-like than Orochimaru's bitch. "I don't believe you. What do you want from me? For someone who's capable of practically erasing her chakra to avoid detection, you willingly waltzed into my line of vision, as if you wanted to be followed."

Karin was watching her face this time. Sakura was aware that the woman was also skilled in reading emotions of a certain person by watching their fluctuating chakra. And it was obvious Karin didn't like what she was seeing in Sakura. "He's almost blind, Sakura. And he's sent me to look for you. And that's the truth. We deliberately tried to get spotted in the Fire Country, thinking that your team would be the one sent to look for us, but your Kage seemed to have concealed information about your former teammate from you."

"Lady Tsunade mentioned _nothing_ about Sasuke for the past three months! You're lying!" Sakura started to bite the insides of her mouth. This made Karin smile. Sakura scowled. She was starting to become nervous.

"Look, this isn't my cup of tea either, because I don't think any girl would want another girl coming even twenty feet near the man that they love. But Sasuke needs you. He's cocky that way, and I think he's overused his _Mangekyo_ _Sharingan_ one too many times. That idiot Kabuto would have been the best chance we'd have had, but he's off shedding his snake skin somewhere unknown."

When Sakura inched towards her, Karin was instantly back on the roof of the stall. "Look, we don't have any other choice. It's either you're in or you're out. If you want to help Sasuke, come to the western dock at midnight. We set sail back to the mainland, and I'll take you to Sasuke."

Sakura felt cold sweat bead her brow. This made Karin's smile widen. "And why do you think I'd want to help that traitor?" she spat out.

Karin, this time, bared her teeth at her in a coy, very much satisfied smile. She had won. "Because I know you would give anything to see him again, even for just this one time." She raised a hand and fluttered her fingers in a mock wave. "I'll be waiting." And she was gone.

After a few seconds, she knew why Karin suddenly made a hasty escape. In a whirl of smoke, Captain Yamato appeared out of nowhere, on his shoulders were two ladies, bound and gagged. Their kimonos were loosely fitted around a healthy amount of cleavage.

If it weren't for Yamato's expression, Sakura would have demanded what he was doing with young girls hanging around his shoulders.

"Where have you been?" Captain Yamato asked sternly as he unceremoniously dropped the two girls in a huge barrel of fish in one of the corners of a fish stall.

Sakura hurriedly concealed her kunai back in her pocket. The act did not come unnoticed by Yamato. "Nothing. I just thought that I saw someone I knew and… yeah…"

Yamato narrowed his almond-shaped eyes at her. "Someone on this island was willing to spend cash to get me occupied enough to lose you. Who was it?"

Sakura swallowed hard. She did not know what to say, and she was never really good at lying. She smiled at Yamato toothily. "Don't be too paranoid, Captain. Come on. We don't have much time. We have to deliver the money by nine o'clock or we fail the mission!"

She was either that obvious, or Yamato that perceptive. But the Jounin was grim as he followed her to the eastern dock. It seemed that after that event, he wasn't about to let her out of his sight.

It was not like Sakura to disobey orders from her captain, but that night, while they waited for the wife of Tsunade's friend to finish counting the fifty million ryo, she was already scheming in her head how she would be able to slip a hefty dose of sleeping potion into Captain Yamato's dinner.

And no one in the Leaf, aside from Shizune and Tsunade herself, could make a meaner sleeping potion than Sakura Haruno.

* * *

As expected, Sasuke Uchiha was elusive.

In the past two days, there were several times when they thought they had cornered him, only to discover it was a trap, where Hinata had once been caught in a _genjutsu_ that left her crying and shaking uncontrollably. Their four-man cell was instantly reduced to three, and Hinata was forced to retire in the shelters. Sai had heard her cry out Naruto's name in her sleep and would wake up sobbing. Kiba would instantly be at her side to comfort her, saying things like, "Naruto won't die until he becomes Hokage," or "Naruto loves no one else but you." Sai never asked Hinata what she saw in the _genjutsu_. He did not want to know.

On the second day, Sai had sent hundreds of his ink mice to surround the perimeter of the many scattered hidden underground bases in Sound. He had a hard time concentrating because his thoughts kept on wandering to Sakura's wellbeing, and if not to her, to Yue Matsunaga's face and to the painting of the woman who had his eyes. Kakashi was very disappointed, though he said nothing, but Sai would feel his senpai's practical eye on him whenever he would fumble on his _jutsu_, and he would mutter an apology and he would try again.

Even though distracted, Sai was the one who made the most progress in narrowing down the possible whereabouts of his target but ran into a brick wall when one of Sasuke's teammates sent a hoard of real mice on his ink summons. He was forced to send ink snakes instead, and since they were easier to spot, they weren't just as effective.

Akamaru and Kiba had as much of a hard time with swallows carrying Sasuke's scent flying in a thousand different directions on the third day.

Though this brought Kakashi amusement to no end, it left Sai frustrated and a bit angry. It was as if Sasuke Uchiha was playing some sort of deranged game of hide-and-seek until the opportunity best suited him.

Sai dreaded that it had something to do with Sakura. The thought made him lose valuable sleep that night.

On the fourth day at noon, Sai found Kakashi reading his dirty book on a branch of a tree. The jounin did not look the least bit annoyed that they had spent three days being ridiculed by a half-blind man.

"You're not giving this your all," Sai accused his senpai silently as he watched the older man swing his leg back and forth on the branch.

Kakashi, not even a bit bothered that Sai was watching him with a stoic expression, acknowledged the former ROOT member with a wave, as if Sai had just asked him how the weather was up the tree. "What makes you say that?" Kakashi marked the page with a leaf.

"Because you haven't been giving concrete direction or suggestion on this mission and we've been running around in circles like fools for the past three and a half days. This performance doesn't match with your ANBU records."

Kakashi looked down at him. "First of all, you have no right to read my ANBU record. And maybe the bad performance is because I've gotten old?"

"You _have _gotten old, but that's just another excuse. You don't want to catch Sasuke Uchiha, do you?"

This seemed to have triggered something in Kakashi, because he leapt down from the branch and effortlessly landed on his feet in front of Sai. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Sai lowered his eyes. He knew he was a hundred years too early to even speak up to this man, but still… "He was your student."

Kakashi narrowed that one eye at him. "Do you want to know the truth? Fine, _I don't want to capture Sasuke_. Why? _Because he doesn't want to be caught_. And if I don't catch him, I would have to be forced to kill him. And I don't want to do that."

Sai's eyes widened. "But the mission – "

"Don't you get it yet?" Kakashi cut him off, for once showing a bit of superiority. "If Tsunade wanted Sasuke caught, or dead, he would have sent Naruto and Sakura along with us. Right now, we're already playing his game, but that doesn't mean we have to lose it. We can find more clues on what he's up to, what and where he's going to go next. Tsunade knows what Sasuke wants, and that's his eyesight back. And the only ones who could possibly give it back to him is Tsunade herself, or her apprentice. And that's Sakura. The last thing Tsunade wanted was to give Sasuke what he wanted."

Sai cursed. Serves him right for trying to get briefed by a drunk woman.

"All the more we should stop him –"

kakashi bared down at him. "If you are so intent on killing Sasuke Uchiha, then be my guest. I won't stop you because it is the mission, after all. But the last of the Uchiha's blood will not be spilled in the last of the Hatake's hands."

Sai was outraged. It was as if Kakashi had deliberately passed him the responsibility that if they weren't able to capture the Uchiha, Sai was the one who was supposed to do the dirty work. "You're team leader," he pointed out weakly.

"And I am Naruto's friend," he countered. "I've tried to capture Sasuke many times before you got here, but I've failed as many times as I've tried. I cannot kill him. If I could, he'd already be dead."

Sai knew he was telling the truth, but Sai could not help but be taken aback once again, and he had the sudden urge to find Sakura and ask her about this certain feeling that was starting to bubble up inside his stomach. He was not yet familiar with this very torn feeling, of his love for Sakura, of his love for Naruto, of his respect for Kakashi, of his hate for Sasuke Uchiha, of his responsibility to his mission and to his Kage. He felt something hurting deep down his chest. And then he was more that just confused.

He was lost.

And Sakura was not there to help him.

"What do I do?" he asked Kakasi a bit breathlessly, demanding for an answer.

Kakashi was beyond words as he examined him. "… you were from ROOT, and you're asking me that?"

When Sai did not answer and instead just started to breath in and out deeply. Kakashi touched his shoulder. "What do you _want _to do?"

Sai brushed his hand away. "I want to snap Sasuke's neck with my bare hands."

"Why?" the older man asked patiently.

"Because the mission said – "

" – No," Kakashi corrected.

Sai's brow furrowed, and he searched for the answer in him, which proved to be quite difficult without Sakura there. He turned to Kakashi. "Because I hate him! I hate him for living his life without a care that Naruto and Sakura are suffering because of him. I hate that he betrayed the Village, and still everyone waits for him to return like a prodigal son, when he is nothing more than your average missing nin! I hate it that Sakura still has his picture in her room, and I hate it that Naruto still has his hitai-ate in his bag! I hate it that you can't kill him as ordered!" He searched for more things to say. He started screaming them when he did. "I hate it that I look like him, because it makes me feel like Sakura sees him in me when we have sex."

The last remark almost had Kakashi reeling, his cheeks someone red under his mask. "_You have sex? You and Sakura?_"

Sai didn't seem to have noticed him. "I hate myself because I'm nothing more than a replacement!"

And it was the first time Sai felt amazingly light-hearted after having exploded in front of Kakashi about so many things he wasn't able to tell Sakura or Naruto. And it was then did he realize that his frustrations weren't simply _just_ about Sasuke, but with his teammates as well, and with himself, feeling the pressure of having to match up, but never really wanting to.

And he felt like he wanted to scream random words just to get the knotted emotions out of his chest. That was until he felt Kakashi's heavy hand land on his head gently.

Kakashi was eyeing him sideways, his expression anything but readable under his hitai-ate and mask. "You are _not_ a replacement. You are Sai of Team Seven, friend of Naruto, boyfriend of Sakura. You are a Leaf shinobi. _You are Sai. _You may not have a past, but your life is being lived, and your future is promising. The mission is nothing to you because your friends and their feelings outweigh it. And if the mission would ever mean an iota of importance to you, it is because of your loyalty to your Village, and _not_ out of your upbringing." Kakashi's eyes closed pleasantly. "I wish I had gotten to know you better. We would have been great friends, I do believe." He ruffled Sai's hair, making it stand on end. "But there would be more time for that."

Sai could only look up at him and blush. He unconsciously wiped at his nose when it started to itch annoyingly, making his eyes water a bit. He nodded.

The moment would have been something Sai would have thought he could cherish in the future.

Had a loud explosion coming from the shelter not suddenly ruined the moment.

Sai and Kakashi were instantly alarmed and the two bolted to a dead run towards the orphanage.

Kiba was the one who met them half-way. He was panting heavily, and a child was crying in his arms. "The shelter is burning black flames…! _A-a-amaterasu!_"

Kakashi cursed under his breath, and Sai watched as the older man pushed his hitai-ate off his left eye, which started to bleed red the moment he opened it.

"Sasuke is here…"

* * *

**_We just love cliffies! Bring in more cliffies!_**


	19. Chapter 19: Confusion

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

* * *

An explosion, a high-pitched sound of screaming children, and the sound of crackling black fire invaded Sai's senses like a wave as he and Kakashi broke out into the clearing, followed by Kiba who was still handling the crying child in his arms.

The extent of the damage was overwhelming, but Sai breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Hinata leaping from one of the windows of the flame-engulfed building, two children roughly tucked under her arms.

"That's the last of the children!" Sai heard the Hyuuga cry out as she landed on the clearing where a number of children were already huddled around a growling Akamaru.

Kiba deposited the child he had in his arms along with the others and covered his nose with his sleeve. "This fire stinks," he complained but nonetheless flew towards the building, making sure to stay clear of the flames. He disappeared behind the eastern wall.

Hinata let her _Byakugan_-enhanced eyes scan the burning shelter, breathing hard. Her face suddenly turned pale. "Yue's still in there," she said grimly, and was up on her feet as if ready to spring to the man's rescue, but Sai and Kakashi were suddenly in front of her, blocking her path.

"Don't even think about it," Kakashi muttered as his _Sharingan_ flickered across the dark flames.

Sai had seen _Amaterasu_ only once in his life, and that time had also been associated with Sasuke Uchiha two years ago, the same day Itachi died. It was the ultimate Fire Release that is sustained by its target, and will not disappear until the target is destroyed. Sai cursed. It was probably the best way to die painfully and slowly.

The former ROOT member could only narrow his eyes. Sasuke _was _here. Or he probably still _is_. Sai felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand on end. First things first. _How can he save Yue?_

The thoughts made him pause, shocked. While he knew that Yue Matsunaga could die and the mission would still continue, there was something –_ just something _– that made Sai's body want to dive into that burning black inferno and haul the man out.

_ Can you tell me my mother's name, I wonder?_

The thought hit Sai unexpectedly, and he was visually shaken that Kakashi had to tap him on the shoulder roughly.

"Stay with me, Sai!" His senpai's voice was strained, as if using his _Sharingan_ for the past month stalking the Uchiha was finally taking its toll. Said eye pointed straight at the building.

And that was when Sai finally found an emotion that he hated even more than regret: _helplessness_.

Kiba's form suddenly emerged from the back of the shelter. He was eyeing the window on the end of the building, a determined light in those wild eyes. The skylight… right above the picture of the woman in white.

"Kiba! Don't. You. _DARE_!" Kakashi commanded the boy, who was now down on all fours as if to pounce.

But it was too late. Kiba sprang up and crashed into the window, sending glass and wood flying.

Kakashi cursed. "Reckless little snot…" He was on his feet and in no time was also through the window after Kiba.

_Amaterasu_ could burn forever so long as the target still existed, but it burned slow, so perhaps, there was time…

_Do you know my father's name as well?_

Sai pressed a hand on his temple, willing the thoughts to go away.

_Yue cannot die yet!_

_ I need to know my surname first…!_

Sai squashed his eyes shut. These thoughts aren't helping! He needed to get his bearings together.

Opening his eyes, he smoothly took out a scroll from his pack, unrolling it in one fluid motion. In another movement, the brush was in his right hand, and in a flash, hundreds of tiny mice sprang into action. They all scuttled away in a hurry into the trees. The first priority was to find Sasuke Uchiha, and Sai was willing to bet he hadn't gone far.

Hinata was huddling the children in the corner of the clearing, and Akamaru was barking at the burning building, as if cheering Kiba on.

The west side of the building collapsed, black flames engulfing it completely.

Sai's head shot up. _No…_

He _had_ to know if his dad also hated steamed beans.

And his eyes widened when he heard another loud crash and Kakashi and Kiba came tumbling out of an eastern window, Yue in tow, the end of his long robes and the ends of his loose bandages were on black fire, and he was screaming as he tried to shrug his robes off.

Kiba's coat was also scorched and he hastily shed it off, throwing it with a grunt into the direction of the building, as far away from the children as possible.

_"Hurry!"_ Kakashi said as he pulled out a kunai from its holster and was intent on hacking away Yue's robes. The kunai was instantly dropped to the ground as it too started to catch fire. Kakashi kicked it aside, saying something lewd as he did so.

And that was then Yue's screams of panic turned to screams of pain. It was too late.

It was probably the bandages. His whole back was on fire now, and the flames were still crawling up his neck.

Sai didn't even realize he had gotten to his feet and was starting to help Kakashi tear at Yue's clothing once more.

"Don't touch the fire," Kakashi said unnecessarily, his voice crackling. The _Sharingan_ flickered and swirled, as if he was concentrating on doing something with it. But whatever it was, it did nothing good except make Kakashi press his hand to his left eye and curse some more.

Yue was now sprawled on the ground, trying desperately to rip the bandages from his body. He was thrashing so wildly that it was hard to even try to help him.

Sai had to back away along with Kakashi as the man squirmed and screamed. Sai heard Hinata commanding the children to close their eyes and cover their ears. He wanted to look away too.

Sai had watched many deaths before, most of which were to his doing. And even back then, even when he was still under ROOT, he had never favored torture over quick kills. One, because they were time-consuming, and two, it slightly disturbed him. All the training he had in ROOT had erased his emotions completely, but his subconscious never did let him escape.

There was this one time when the mission involved information-gathering where he had to torture an enemy guard in order to find the passage that led to the information he needed. The guard was tough, but Sai was able to break him. After a few chopped off fingers and a shattered tooth or three. He felt absolutely nothing when he had tortured that guard, but his nights were filled with bloody dreams where he heard the guard screaming at him for mercy. He would wake up in the middle of the night feeling, as always, nothing, but nonetheless sleepless and wide awake until morning.

As he watched Yue try to escape the inevitable pain, Sai knew that he will be seeing this man's bandaged face, the unseen gaping hole that was his mouth under those bandages, the terror in that one eye, in his nightmares for a few weeks to come.

And the helplessness engulfed him completely. His left hand whipped his _tanto_ from his shoulder. He might as well end it right now for him.

But it was then did it suddenly happen. One moment, Yue was thrashing in pain, the next there was a warm pink light, and Yue was encased in what looked like an irregularly shaped scarlet crystal. His screams were suddenly cut off that they echoed across the clearing, and then it was silent, except for the sound of black fire licking wood, and the cries of the terrified children.

Sai looked up, bewildered, and that was when he saw her.

A tall, willowy woman with blue-black hair and dark eyes, a simple white kimono with tiny conspicuous-looking flowers at the hem stood with one hand outstretched towards the clearing.

Sai could only open his mouth as he tore his gaze from the woman, then stared at Yue, now frozen in that crystal. He had met that woman before, two years ago…

It was Kakashi who acknowledged her. "Guren."

The woman pointed at Kakashi, annoyed. "I've told you many times not to use that name."

Hinata looked over her shoulder at the woman and paled. Sai had heard that Team Eight had once had an encounter with this Crystal Release _Kekkei Genkai_, but what Sai didn't understand was that he thought Guren had died. As for Yuukimaru, he had just mysteriously disappeared.

"I thought Guren was dead…" Sai murmured in disbelief as he got to his feet.

Guren's eyes traveled from Kakashi to Sai. "Guren _is _dead. I come by the name of Tsubaki."

* * *

Sakura rubbed her cheek with the back of her hand and sniffed her collar in disgust. She stared at the red-haired girl sitting a few feet from her and frowned.

This was probably her punishment for abandoning Yamato after slipping into his water bottle a sleeping potion good enough to knock out a horse; she had to ride the earliest boat back to the mainland, which happened to carry fish entrails.

Karin, who had been quiet all throughout the first two hours of the trip, suddenly spoke. "Why on earth are they carrying fish guts?"

Sakura shot the girl a despairing look. "They sell it to the farmers of Grass as fertilizers for their crops," she explained shortly. "I'm surprised you don't know this. Didn't you come from the Grass?"

Karin had the decency to blush. She adjusted her glasses self-consciously. "Trivial, trivial," was all she said.

Sakura returned her eyes to her feet and unconsciously adjusted her ankle weights. She knew that she was going to get a talking-to from Tsunade when she found out Sakura had evidently disobeyed orders… But still…

"So," Sakura started. "How… how is Sasuke?" At the mention of the name, she couldn't believe her heart skipped a beat.

Karin was looking at her behind her glasses. "He's fine. He's gotten stronger, and maybe… weaker?" a worried look passed her face. "His chakra scares me, but I can never stay away."

Sakura had no idea what she was talking about. She rested her head on the barrel behind her and sighed. The dark sky was cloudy; no stars to even distract her from the number of thoughts parading in her head. How many hours before sunrise, she wondered?

She will be able to see Sasuke tomorrow.

_She will be able to see Sasuke tomorrow!_

"I'm going to warn you, though," Karin said silently. "There are four other shinobi from the Leaf who are after Sasuke."

At the mention of that, Sakura felt her heart stop beating altogether, and the thing that had been bothering her ever since they left the Village started to nag at her again. Her hands withdrew from her ankle weights. "You were expecting my team to turn up, didn't you? You were expecting for me or Naruto to come."

"_Sasuke _was expecting you to come. _Hoping_ for it, even. But your Hokage sent… others. It ruined Sasuke's plan." Karin mimicked Sakura, leaning back on her own barrel.

Sakura, for the millionth time, asked herself what the hell she was doing with a missing Grass nin in a boat full of fish guts. She was out of her mind. If Tsunade had already sent a team to retrieve Sasuke, then why was she sticking her nose into it?

It was simple.

She was a freaking masochist.

And who could hurt her better than Sasuke Uchiha?

"He's… changed," Karin suddenly said. "He's no longer the Sasuke you know."

Sakura felt her eyes close on their own. Five years was a long time… Too long a time… "Did I even really know him?" she asked silently, more to herself than Karin.

Sakura heard the girl shuffle in place. She opened her eyes when she felt a hand on her knee. The girl was looking at her with an expression she could not read.

"Your chakra is… _hurting_."

Sakura looked down at the hand then at the girl's face. "Don't pity me. I'm going to take Sasuke back to the Leaf where he belongs and there's nothing you can do about it."

Karin, suddenly looking annoyed, withdrew her hand and wrapped her arms around her knees. "He doesn't belong anywhere. He never did. He never _will_. You'll see when you meet him."

"Bullshit," Sakura snapped at her, then bit her lip, because she couldn't help but feel like a part of her actually believed the red-haired girl. Because she knew that Karin was right. Because she knew even without Karin saying it, Sasuke never really _did _belong anywhere.

"For someone who claims she loves him, you surely don't sound as enthusiastic," Sakura pointed out.

Karin fidgeted uncomfortably. "His chakra scares me," she repeated what she said earlier. "But I follow his orders."

"Out of fear?"

"Out of love, loyalty, or maybe, admiration?"

Sakura frowned. She didn't believe she would get a straight answer from this girl, and so she decided to change the subject. "The team that went to retrieve Sasuke. Who were they?"

Karin shrugged. "No one Sasuke really cared about. Except for that tall, silver-haired man with the mask."

Sakura nearly fell over. "Kakashi-sensei?"

"Is that his name? Yeah, and there's this guy with a dog, and a Hyuuga girl with them. And then there's this – "

"Sai!" She suddenly blurted out. Sai had been teamed up with Kiba and Hinata! So this was why it was so confidential! The momentary euphoria lasted for a few seconds before Sakura suddenly started to feel cold. Her fingers were on her ankles again.

"The guy who kind of looks like Sasuke?" Karin was watching her under her lashes. "Sasuke told me about him. He said he was… _the replacement_."

The way Karin said those words, made Sakura shiver for some reason. She rubbed her arms briskly. "He's…"

_He's not a replacement!_

Sakura bowed. "Yeah… the replacement…"

_I miss you._

Karin suddenly raised an eyebrow. "Your chakra fluctuated. This replacement… means something to you, doesn't he? When I mentioned the other members of the retrieval team, you didn't even bat an eyelash. But when I mentioned this… Sai… your chakra flow… changed." Those red eyes maliciously grazed Sakura's face. "It's almost– _almost_– similar to when I mentioned Sasuke's name."

Sakura was taken aback, and she didn't even know why, but she was suddenly on her feet, and her right hand was clutching Karin's collar roughly. The other girl watched her with an expression too calm for the occasion.

"That's none of your business, so keep away from me and my chakra flow, bitch. If you know what's good for you," Sakura spat.

Karin smiled up at her devilishly. "You're blushing."

Sakura was tempted to punch the woman's face in, but decided against it. She dropped Karin and made herself settle down, leaning her weight on the barrel behind her. ""Leave me alone."

Karin snorted, but decided to let Sakura be about the subject. "I'm actually not surprised you came with me."

Sakura leered at her. "Weren't you glad?" she asked sarcastically.

Karin gave her a one-sided smile. "It's just as Sasuke said you'd do. When we found out you were sent by your Kage to the Water Country, Sasuke knew there was something wrong. If news about Sasuke ever leaked your way, we knew it was either you or Naruto who'd jump in head-first to catch up to him. Your Kage has a talent of lying well."

Sakura clenched and unclenched her fists. "The Lady Tsunade does not_ lie;_ she _schemes_. I don't even know why I abandoned my Captain for this."

Karin's eyes flashed. "It's because you're not over Sasuke, right?"

Sakura had to control herself from pounding Karin to dust. "My feelings for Sasuke are none of your concern."

"Oh, so there _are_ feelings involved?"

"Shut up."

"Your chakra just fluctuated again."

"_Shut up!"_

"And what about this Sai? _Oh-ho!_ It fluctuated again, you fickle little thing!"

Sakura's hand was on Karin's collar again. "I am not a fickle little thing. I do not have feelings other than friendship for Sasuke, and I am very much devoted to Sai. Not that I need to explain anything to you."

"Do you love him? This Sai?"

It was probably the most overrated question in the world. And the hardest to answer. She had kissed him, slept with him and they were living together. It would not have been too hard to answer, but she found herself hesitating. Those words – _I love you _– were words that haven't passed their lips yet, and she doubted Sai truly understood the meaning of it.

She let Karin go. "Of course I love him," she said grimly.

And that was when Karin's lips broke into a sneer. "You're lying."

Sakura, after a few seconds, buried her head to her knees. "Am I? Am I really?"

She didn't want to believe her.

She didn't want to believe it.

* * *

By nightfall, _Amaterasu_ finally burned away, and along with it, the shelters. Hinata, Kiba and Sai were forced to go ask the villagers for blankets and mattresses they could spare for the children who were not only left homeless, but also fatherless. Yue, who was the only casualty in the fire was still in Guren's _jutsu_ when they buried him in the far end of the clearing. Sai would have preferred a better burial, but Yue forever encased in a crystal tomb and the children could see his tormented face was starting to depress even Kakashi.

Guren had explained that it was better that he died in her _jutsu_, rather than being slowly and painfully consumed by Sasuke's black fire. Sai had to agree that it was, in the end, the best and most merciful thing to have done. Or so Guren – who insisted they call her Tsubaki – explained.

Of course, the burial had left Sai numb, and the children crying.

After gathering supplies for the children, though the village itself didn't have much to spare, Sai was assigned to make a fire and Hinata was forced to cook something out of nothing. Stew was always the best choice when there was quite a number of mouths to feed, so the Hyuuga had set off to the garden that had miraculously survived, and started to gather tiny carrots and undersized potatoes.

Kiba and Sai then proceeded to work on the tents, though Sai really wasn't much of a help. Kiba had to shake him out of his reverie twice because his thoughts would always wander to the events of that day.

"Get your act together," Kiba growled at him for the third time.

Sai held the blanket over the pole Kiba was supporting. "I'm sorry," was all he could say, and he _would_ 'get his act together' for a few minutes before he would start to space out again, and his eyes would roam towards the bonfire where Kakashi and Guren were sitting, talking quietly.

Everything was happening all at once that Sai wasn't even able to ask why Guren was there in the first place, but the way Kakashi was talking to her, it seemed like this was not the first time in the past month that they had met.

Once the temporary sleeping arrangements were finished, and Hinata had made sure the children were fed, watered and tucked in for the night, the Retrieval Team sat around the fire with Guren and the Copy Ninja.

When Kiba bluntly asked about Guren, Kakashi was more than willing to explain.

"Guren here – "

" – Tsubaki."

"Right, Tsubaki here actually is a friend of Yue. Though she and Yuukimaru hop from village to village, they usually stay here the longest, sometimes helping out in the shelters. In the past month, we've met a few times in the market, and she told me she'd kill me if I called her by her real name."

Hinata turned to Guren. "I guess it's easier to go by an alias. I wouldn't be surprised if your face was in the bingo book."

Guren looked at the Hyuuga, making the younger girl blush and twiddle her thumbs. "The bingo book was hardly the reason, but Orochimaru's death contributed a lot to my freedom now."

"And Yuukimaru?"

"I asked him to stay in his home village for a while. Just until I take care of unfinished business."

Kiba frowned. "Unfinished business?"

Kakashi rubbed his temple gently. Sai supposed he was still has a bit weak. "When she heard of the rumor of Orochimaru's former followers, she came out here to settle a score." Kakashi pinned her a look. "How did it go?"

Guren smiled. "Almost done." She pointed to the western part of the clearing. "If you walk ten minutes into the trees, you will find Suigetsu and Juugo trapped in a crystal prison." After saying this, she sighed. "I couldn't find the girl with red hair, and Orochimaru's favorite, Uchiha."

And with that, they fell silent.

"He was here, though," Kakashi said grimly after a while, his hand thumbing his _hitai-ate_ covering his left eye. "What did he want, I wonder?"

"Didn't he just want to cause chaos?" Hinata asked.

"No. At least I don't think so. Sasuke may be twisted, but he's no terrorist." Kakashi closed his eyes, pained. "Right before the shelters burst into flames, I heard an explosion."

Hinata nodded. "There was an explosion and Kiba and I immediately evacuated the children out of the shelters."

Kakashi gave a small whistle. "He gave a warning. It was as if he wanted the children evacuated before he cast his _jutsu_ on the building." He shook his head. "Had Yue not insisted on staying, he wouldn't have died that way."

Sai's head shot up at this comment. "Yue… _insisted_ on staying?"

Kakashi looked at Sai slowly. "He insisted on saving the painting of the woman in white."

And Sai could only blink. He felt his head sink into his hands as the conversation around him continued without him hearing it.

He did not know if what he was feeling was considered a normal human emotion. A part of him felt utmost relief that the man who had given him something to expect was dead. But at the same time felt like there could have been something more, had he lived. Once again, he was feeling entirely torn.

So very torn.

And it was then did he feel his chest start to hurt. He knew this feeling. He was _missing_ her. And it was such a _bad feeling_. His hand unconsciously scratched at his chest. He suddenly had the strong longing to find Sakura, take her into his arms and lie in bed and do nothing but hug her. When all of this was over, he knew that the depression – that has to be the right feeling – that was threatening to overcome him because of the loss of probably the only link to his past was going to eat him alive.

If he hadn't been so stubborn and just let Yue tell him about the possibility that the boy in the picture was him. That the boy taken by ROOT fifteen years ago had been him. That his eyes were from his mother. That the skill he had in the arts had been from his father, and was enhanced by Yue himself until he was five years old. It was just too coincidental to be false.

And even if it _were_ false, he could have just _pretended_ it were real.

But his chance for a past was gone now.

Now he was starting to regret…

And he hated regret…

He could have gotten a surname at the very least. Something to offer Sakura in the future, if ever they did get married… Or… have children of their own.

And that was when it hit him like a splash of cold water. He felt it nagging at the corner of his brain.

One of his ink mice had found Sasuke Uchiha. Sai was on his feet that second. Kakashi did not need to be told what was wrong.

"Where is he?" Kakashi asked.

Sai wordlessly looked out into the eastern side of the clearing.

Kakashi nodded. "Kiba, stay with Tsubaki and protect the children. Hinata, we need your eyes."

"Understood," Hinata said, and she was also up on her feet, her _Byakugan_ already activated.

Kakashi looked down at Sai. "Lead the way."

* * *

Branches whipped at Sai's face as the three of them leaped through the trees in a hurry. Hinata, who was at Sai's right, was unblinkingly staring forward.

"Seven hundred meters straight ahead," the Hyuuga breathed. "He's in a clearing. He's not moving from his spot."

Sai gritted his teeth. What's he up to?

"Six hundred meters. He's just standing there!" Hinata said incredulously.

"It could be a trap," Kakashi pointed out.

"Does it matter?" Sai asked as he leaped hard against a low hanging branch.

Kakashi looked over to him. "It's now or never."

"Five hundred meters. No movement at all." Hinata started biting her thumb. "He isn't moving… Why?"

Something, Sai didn't know what, was definitely up. His _tanto_ was in his left hand before he even realized it.

"Four hundred meters… What the – ! Someone just entered my parameter. Two people, coming fast from the south," Hinata informed, then she gasped. "It's Sakura!"

And that was when it happened.

Sai and his group broke into another clearing where – after tailing him for four days, after never seeing him once in the past two years – he saw Sasuke. His head was bowed and his relatively longer jet black hair was spilling over his face.

What used to be a body of a boy was now that of a man who looked like he had not been living his life quite well. Clad in loose black trousers and a dirty white shirt, the _shimenawa_ coiled around his torso holding up his scabbard for the sword he carried across his hip.

And the next thing all happened in slow motion. He saw Hinata break away from the group, heading south to intercept Sakura and her companion. Kakashi was looking at him in horror and was shouting something Sai couldn't quite make out.

And then Sasuke raised his one seeing eye at him. Sai saw the black in the red, saw it flicker madly.

And one moment, he was flying through the clearing, the next he was hanging in mid-air, his body frozen.

He felt his surroundings turn into an unearthly shade of black and red as well, black and red like the _Sharingan_, and he felt the sky searing a painful light that he had to wince. He wanted to move his hands, to shield his eyes from the light, or from the dark, but he found his arms outstretched on either side of him. He could not move his body.

And suddenly Sasuke was in front of him, unseeing eyes on Sai's face. His long sword drawn and pointing down into the black and red ground.

While normal human beings would have been terrified, Sai merely looked down at Sasuke. "What have you done to me?" he asked. The Uchiha had him in a _genjutsu_. That was the fact. But knowing reality from _genjutsu_ wasn't enough to break it.

Sasuke did not look like he heard his question. He raised the sword above his head.

"Die."

And Sasuke brought the sword down.

Sai felt the sword rip though his shoulder, the pain making him shudder. But he was not going to give the bastard the satisfaction of hearing him scream. Sasuke pulled the sword out of him, this time putting it against his throat.

"Die." He slit Sai's throat.

And everything went black.

…

And he woke up the next day squinting in the harsh light of the red and black world, his arms outstretched on either side of him. He felt tired. He felt thirsty. So very thirsty.

And when he looked down, he saw Sasuke looking at him with those unseeing red eyes. Still those unseeing eyes. Still that drawn sword.

Sasuke's left eye began to bleed.

And Sai felt his body hurt as flames erupted at his shoulder. Slow, searing pain. He did not scream out.

_He will not scream out!_

And he blacked out, only to wake up the next day to die again.

And wake up and die.

And wake up and die.

And wake up and die.

And wake up and die.

Sai felt like he aged three years.

_Sakura…_

His eyes popped open. He had lost count of the days passing, but when he woke up that fateful day in the harsh light of red and black, he felt a sudden pain spread from his leg.

And he woke up with a start, gasping, this time in a world of green leaves and grass, not the black and red world.

The clearing. He was back in the clearing.

He felt the strength leaving him, and his legs gave in, and he felt his body start to fall. His lips let out a groan, and he felt his body come in contact with something hard but warm.

He forced his eyes open, to look down. He saw the top of Kakashi's head. Sai was sprawled across his senpai's back. The pain on his leg, he saw, was caused by his _tanto_ digging deep in his upper thigh. He must have stabbed himself with it to break the _genjutsu_.

"Advise from one who's experienced first-hand the _Tsukuyomi: _In a battle with an Uchiha, _never ever look him in the eye_," Kakashi said. "That must have been the longest five minutes of your life. Are you all right?"

So it had just been five minutes. It felt like years of dying over and over…

Sai couldn't speak. His throat was dry, and it was starting to close in on him. He didn't care what time it was, or how long he had been in Sasuke's _Tsukuyomi_.

For in the middle of the clearing was a sight no ROOT training could have prepared him for.

In the middle of the clearing stood Sasuke Uchiha, but he was not alone. Sakura, for some weird reason dressed as a civilian, had her arms wrapped around the Uchiha's neck.

Her lips were pressed to his ear. _She was biting his ear._

Sai's chest suddenly expanded, as if his heart was going to explode. He could not see the logic in it all! His shaky hand reached out to the _tanto_ sticking out of him. With a cry, he pulled it free. Blood – his blood- splattered all over Kakashi's vest.

This was another _genjutsu_. He was sure of it! It was the only explanation. It was Sasuke's _genjutsu_, his form of torturing Sai! But Sai was onto him. He was going to break the trap now! Without pausing, he stabbed his other leg. The pain seared through his body, making him fall against Kakashi again.

But the _genjutsu_ wouldn't disappear..!

Sakura was still in Sasuke Uchiha's arms.

"I told you not to look at an Uchiha in battle…" Kakashi scolded him silently.

Sai felt his eyelids go heavy. He saw Hinata in the corner of his eye. The Hyuuga had a red-haired girl detained, her arms pinned behind her. Then he saw Kakashi giving him a slight nod.

Then his eyes went back to the center of the clearing.

Sakura had pulled away from the embrace with Sasuke Uchiha, and there was a look of shock in the bastard's face before his eyes suddenly rolled back into his head and he tumbled forward, unconscious. Sakura caught him by the shoulders and she gently guided him to the ground, cradling his head on her lap. She wiped her mouth suspiciously.

Sai was too far away to hear her, but he could read Sakura's lips. She wiped her mouth some more, as if to rid herself of whatever she had in it, then said. "Welcome home, Sasuke."

And Sai's world instantly became dark. He felt Kakashi catch him.

And he dreamed of nice quiet nights spent in bath houses, and lunches with parents and salty cake, and fluffy omelets, and hide-and-seek.

And he dreamed of Sakura kissing another man.

**_

* * *

_**

_**Before anything else, I'd like to commend a reviewer, xxAwesomeLucyxx! I've tried so hard to make Sai react physically to his emotions, like scratching his chest when he feels pain, or wiping his nose when he gets too emotional, and **__**xxAwesomeLucyxx **_was the only one who was so kind enough to actually point out my effort of making Sai's body language notable. XD You rock!

_**And clif~fies rock too!**_


	20. Chapter 20: Doubt

_** Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

_**A/N: No action, no fluff, no plot development. Just a bit of angst... And character development. Bear with me. XD**_

_**

* * *

**_

From the very first time Sakura Haruno had laid eyes on him, she knew she was down for a crush. He was everything she would have imagined a perfect boy would be. Of course there wasn't much to that imagination for a nine-year-old, though she had thought holding hands with him would have been nice.

Too bad majority of the academy's female population also seemed to think the same thing. She just ended up lucky to have been on the same team as he.

And she knew she was in love then. No one could have been able to make her heard beat as fast as it did with just a stare. It didn't matter if the stare was cold, so long as he noticed her existence.

That felt like a million years ago.

But as she stood on the edge of the clearing, breathing hard, her heart trying to beat of out her chest as she stared at him with wide, wide eyes, she remembered why she had loved him so much all these years.

He had grown. So very much. So much did he start to look like his older brother, only with softer, almost feminine features. As he stood there, so very still, eyes she knew could hardly see, were pinned on none other than Sai, who had just broken into the clearing with Kakashi and Hinata.

Everything happened so fast, that she did not even have a chance to react. Hinata had suddenly swept past her with a cry, and clashed head-on with an unsuspecting Karin, and both girls disappeared into a nearby bush. Kakashi was suddenly alert, guard up, and was circling Sai, who looked as if he was frozen.

Sakura felt her heart hurt, and she was clutching her chest tightly with one hand. She took a step forward, towards the man who once was a boy. The boy who had stolen her heart away without even trying.

She bravely took two steps more.

Sasuke suddenly pulled his sword out of its scabbard, put it between him and Sakura, his eyes never leading Sai. "Identify yourself."

The deepness of his voice made Sakura gasp as she looked from Sai to Sasuke. She swallowed hard at the sudden realization that Sai was caught in one of Sasuke's _genjutsu_. She took one more chance at stepping forward. "It's me, Sasuke…"

The surprise was evident in his handsome features, and although his eyes did not turn to her, Sakura suddenly felt self-conscious. It was then did it dawn on her, how two years could make such a difference in just one existence.

Karin was right.

He _has _changed.

"Sakura?" he asked, the uncertainty couldn't be missed from his voice.

Sakura smiled. "I came. Here I am." She tried to reach out to him.

He raised his sword defensively. He did not look like someone who would trust anyone anytime soon. What else was new?

Sakura spread her arms out. "I'm unarmed. I just want to come closer. If that's all right."

Sakura had thought that a begging woman wouldn't have reached Sasuke, but was surprised when she saw the sword lower slightly.

"I've waited for you…"

"I'm here now."

The Uchiha winced. The change was amazing. Now she knew what Karin meant with getting stronger and weaker. There was a certain strength in him, and a vulnerability.

Inch by inch, step by slow step, she closed the distance between them. And Sakura suddenly felt it so very hard to breathe. She had been chasing after him, after his shadow for so very long now, and though the novelty had worn out after so long, and she didn't feel like screaming at the top of her lungs at the proximity, she felt like finally, she had caught up to him.

She reached out, taking him by the shoulder. In the corner of her eye, she saw Sai jerk awake, driving his _tanto_ into his leg in one swift move. Kakashi was suddenly there, catching him as he fell.

The former ROOT member snapping out of Sasuke's _jutsu_ seemed to have irked the Uchiha. Sakura took this chance. She pulled him to her into an embrace. The Uchiha stiffened at the contact. She pressed her mouth to his ear.

"I guess, I really _am _a fickle little thing." And slowly, she took his earlobe into her mouth and sucked on it. She felt Sasuke shudder in her embrace, and she felt his arms snake around her waist.

And then she bit down. _Hard_.

She felt the needle she had strategically placed between her teeth sink into Sasuke's skin, making a silent crunching sound as the object pierced through his ear.

Sakura tasted blood.

Sasuke, surprised, instantly pulled away, a look of shock suddenly taking over his face. And his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He fell forward.

Sakura caught him before he crumpled to the ground. She kneeled and cradled Sasuke's head into her lap, then wiped her mouth of his blood.

"Welcome home, Sasuke."

She looked up just in time to see Sai, who had just stabbed his other leg as if in desperation, fall onto Kakashi's back. Her boyfriend's legs were both wounded, bleeding. In normal circumstances, she would have flown to him to heal him, but she finally – _finally_ – had Sasuke in her clutches. Finally! After so very long…!

She looked down at the man, unconscious on her lap. She instantly regretted to have missed the transition he had from being the handsome boy then, to the handsome man he was now.

She smiled sadly.

Naruto would be so proud of her.

* * *

He could hear snatches of conversations around him, but he didn't have the strength to open his eyes. He did not even know who was talking to who.

"Guren – "

" – Tsubaki."

"Sorry… The shelters… the children…"

"I'll do what I can for the children here. It seems to me like you already have a lot on your hands as it is. Is the boy all right?"

"I'm surprised he didn't go mad under that _jutsu_."

"Hmm…"

"Once Yamato gets here, we can put up a new home in no time."

"Thank you, Kakashi. That would be appreciated."

And he felt like he lost consciousness. When he came to, he forced his eyes to open a millimeter. A set of dirty, scruffy boots he could not recognize filled his sight.

"Is Sai okay?"

"Sasuke was never as talented as Itachi with the _Tsukuyomi_. When Itachi had me in that _jutsu_ for a few moments, I was in the hospital for two weeks."

"I couldn't have imagined it, Senpai."

"How about you, Tenzou? I heard Sakura gave you the slip."

"She gave me more than just the slip. I was out for seven hours."

"But I'm glad you're here. I need you to make a thirty-room building. And make it quick."

"_What?"_

And Sai blacked out again.

He came to as a woman's loud boisterous yelling made his head pound.

"You knocked out your superior, ran away with a missing nin, and deliberately disobeyed my orders! What have you got to say for yourself?

"I apologize, Master. But I made sure I completed the mission before I ran off. And I didn't mean any harm on Captain Yamato. And if it weren't for me, Sasuke wouldn't have been detained."

"The ends don't justify the means, Sakura. You disobeyed direct orders."

There was silence. Murmurs.

"What did you just say?"

There was a sniff. "You didn't have to lie to me. You should have told me it was a mission about Sasuke. You should have told me and Naruto."

"If I did that, you would have insisted on being on the team."

"And what's so wrong with that? Is it so wrong to want to retrieve your teammate?"

"Because the mission objectives state that if you cannot capture the target, you will be forced to eliminate it. Could you have done it? Could _you_ have eliminated Sasuke?"

More silence.

"I thought as much, Sakura."

"I could have captured him. And I did. Isn't that enough?"

There was a pause. "Is it enough for you? Now that you've captured him, do you think things will go back the way it was before?"

"No, my Lady."

"Do you think Team Seven will go back the way it was five years ago?"

"No, my Lady."

Another pause. "I know how you feel about Sasuke."

"Though there is nothing to know, my Lady."

"Don't you lie to me. You're like my daughter. I know when you are lying."

"I apologize."

"I know it's been more like an obsession for you, Sakura. But now that you finally have him back, I hope you know that there are more feelings involved that just your own."

And more silence.

Sai went back to sleep, his head spinning in dreams of black and red worlds, black and red eyes, and pink hair.

* * *

Sakura sat on a stool inside Room 2E on the foot of the bed that occupied a still unconscious Sai. It had been two days since they've gotten back to the village, and Sai had been out majority of the time, waking up only to blink at anyone who was in the room, then fall back to sleep. Sakura, who hadn't even bathed and slightly stank, made sure Sai didn't see her during the rare times he would come to.

In the past two days, she had been allowed to see Sasuke only once, and that was yesterday when Tsunade had removed him from the hospital to the prison in the dungeon of the Hokage Tower. He hadn't spoken at all, and as unseeing as his eyes were, he showed no signs of blindness; he had moved like a lion, swift and silent and confident, as if he wasn't even in captivity. Ibiki had escorted him, and he was as calm as a rock. There was a moment when his eyes had met Sakura then, although that could have been purely her imagination.

Karin, Juugo and Suigetsu were transferred to the Konoha Correctional Facility in the edge of Old Konoha. As they were missing nin from other Hidden Villages, it was not within the Leaf Village's law to pass judgment. Only Sasuke was to be tried, and Sakura had already prepared herself for the worst. The elders of Konoha were not going to sacrifice peace between the villages just to save the life of one man.

_Unless they wanted the bloodline limit to live on._

She looked up when someone knocked on the door, and Ino came in, a grim expression on her usually naughty face. "Naruto's back," were the words that came out of her mouth as she stood beside Sakura and stared at the unmoving Sai. "He's in the Fifth's office, picking a fight with the Lady Tsunade."

Sakura could only nod. She didn't even have the strength to say anything.

She felt Ino's hand on her shoulder.

"Sakura…" her eyes were shifty when Sakura raised her face to look at her. "Are you all right?"

Another overrated question. _Are you all right? Do you love him? _Goddamn overrated questions.

Sakura returned her gaze at the dark-haired man on the bed. His eyes were closed on his pale face, and his chest would rise and fall silently as if he hadn't just been under torture. She felt her hand shake as she reached out and touched Sai's blanketed foot. It did not twitch, no sign that he felt here there. She instantly withdrew her hand.

"I'm in probation."

"For how long?"

"A month. No out-of-village missions for me for a while." She let out a mirthless laugh. "As if _that_ mattered. Nothing freaking matters anymore."

Ino was staring at her, those blue eyes dark as she examined the pink-haired kunoichi. "I heard Sai and Sasuke's run-in didn't turn out great."

"Sai could have died. Or gone crazy…"

Ino squeezed her shoulder. "Sasuke's done enough damage to you, Sakura. He's not going to hurt you or Naruto ever again."

The remark made Sakura suddenly look up. "Ino?"

The blonde kneeled in front of her. Sakura's face must have looked like she was about to cry because Ino took her hands in hers, lacing their fingers together.

"What is it?"

Sakura had no idea why she all of a sudden felt like asking Ino about this. "When did you stop loving Sasuke?"

The question had obviously surprised her friend. Ino smiled sadly. "When I got old enough to stop fantasizing about a future that could never happen." It was her turn to laugh mirthlessly. "The feeling just faded, I guess."

Sakura bit the side of her cheek. Like her, Ino had claimed she loved Sasuke, so much that even their friendship had taken a back-seat for the Uchiha. As she looked back at it, she might have thought it silly, and childish, and she would have laughed at it if her emotions weren't confusing her too much.

Because truth be told, deep down in her heart, she felt like she, unlike Ino, had not grown up at all.

"What's wrong?" Ino asked when Sakura wouldn't elaborate. She smiled at her encouragingly.

Sakura bravely raised her eyes to Ino, and then closed her eyes painfully. "I think I may still be in love with him."

Ino's smile was suddenly wiped from her face. The grip she had on Sakura's hand slackened. "No…"

Sakura looked away.

Ino took her chin, forced her to look back. "Sakura, what are you talking about? You can't still be in love with the man who practically ripped your heart out five years ago and then stabbed it multiple times three years after that! It's not right." Her blue eyes flashed to the man on the bed. "You have a nice guy here! He's smart, handsome, talented, and he adores you! Sure, he may be weird sometimes and he could say the most uncomfortable things on occasion, but… well… You love Sai, don't you?" she finished in desperation.

Sakura jerked her head away again, her face suddenly heating up.

Ino grabbed her shoulders, shook her a bit. _"Don't you?" _she demanded.

A lone tear trickled down Sakura's cheek.

The shock was too much for Ino. She shot to her feet, looking down at Sakura in disgust. "Sakura, ever since we were little, I knew you could be better. It took a while to get you to come out of your shell, but when you finally did, you outshone every single kunoichi in the batch. Have you heard the rumors? They said you could be as strong as the Fifth in her prime. Some even say you could be stronger. And if I said anything to contradict it, it would be purely out of jealousy." Her brow furrowed as her grip on Sakura's shoulder tightened. "When you started going out with Sai, I was sincerely happy for you. So happy there wasn't even room for envy! Because I honestly thought it was wonderful. You can't throw that away because of this! Not this, Sakura!"

Sakura brushed Ino's hands away. "Don't you think I know that? Don't you think I've tried to talk myself out of this? He's a rogue! He's hurt me more times than I could remember. And at times in the past two years, I actually thought I was over him. But that was because never in a million years did I think it possible to catch up on him. Until today. And as I took him into my arms in that clearing, I knew, that this was the boy that made me who I am. That this was the source of my desire to be stronger. And now, he's here. He's back and I feel – "

Ino gasped.

And Sakura felt her heart stop beating altogether.

Because, there on the bed, dark eyes slightly open, that unreadable expression on his beautifully pale face, Sai stared at her. And that expression was another first for Sakura, because for the past two years they had been teammates, and for the past weeks they have been dating, it was the first time he had stared at her coldly.

_I feel like a goddamn loser._

* * *

So this was what it felt like to be hurt emotionally. He had read about it a million times in books. He had thought that since his major sources were romance novels, they were most probably exaggerated.

But here was what sucked about it.

All of them were true.

You'd feel like an invisible hand had suddenly plunged inside your chest and grabbed your heart, and squeezed and squeezed until you couldn't breathe anymore. And then after that, you'd try to recover, try to rationalize that it wasn't true, but the reality was going to hit you like a bucket of icy water. And then even when you're shivering from the cold, you'd feel your palms sweating, and then you'd like to put your feelings into words, but your mouth just wouldn't work properly.

And all you could do was stare at her lovely face as she looked at anything else but you.

Somewhere beside him came a voice that sounded like Ino, saying that she was going to give them some alone time. He wanted to confirm if it really was Ino, but he couldn't tear his eyes from Sakura's face. He wanted to sit up but couldn't. His body felt like it wasn't his own.

Sakura was staring at a spot a few inches above his head.

He wondered why she wouldn't say anything. He wished she would sit closer to him. Having her at the foot of his bed made her feel so very distant.

He wanted to move his hands, to reach out to her. His fingers ended up twitching, and that made her look at him finally.

"You were awake?" she said feebly.

Sai could only stare. He had heard everything. Now he knew what emotional pain felt. How do normal people usually react to emotional pain?

"I… I…" Sakura started to speak. She never got past that one syllable.

He turned away, watched the IV drip lazily, traced the thin tube connected to his vein. He opened his mouth. "What…"

Sakura started to bite her lip.

Sai returned his gaze at her. "What… was I to you?"

Sakura closed her eyes. One lone tear trickled from her left eye. And then another. And another.

Sai gripped the sheets with shaky fingers. He tried to sit up, but immediately fell back on the bed, defeated.

That got the medic in Sakura up on her feet. Her hands were instantly on his chest, pressing him down.

"Don't try to get up. You're not strong enough yet."

Sai wanted to push her away. Her palms were warm against the thin fabric of his hospital gown. He clasped her wrists weakly. "What was I to you?" he asked again, his voice crackling.

Sakura's face broke into a pained smile. Sai had to look away. That was the first time he actually understood what they meant about forced or faked.

Sakura's fingers clawed at his hospital gown, as if to make sure Sai wasn't going to spring up anytime soon. "You… are special, Sai. Very special."

"Like Sasuke is special?" Sai asked, deadpanned. He wasn't accusing her. Sai didn't believe he was capable of accusing her of anything. Except perhaps accuse her for being undeniably beautiful, wonderful and over-all irresistible that she was able to pull out emotions from Sai's heart that he didn't even know existed in him.

And if ever he would end up accusing her, he would blame her for the heavy ache in his chest that represented the loss of Yue, the loss of the paintings in the shelters, and the portrait of the woman in white, who could have been – _could have been _– his biological mother.

The remembrance of the events in the border made him weak all over. He pushed Sakura away.

Sakura looked taken aback at first, opened her mouth as if to say something, changed her mind. For a brief moment, she looked like she didn't know what to do with her hands so she intently wrapped her arms around herself. "Sasuke is special. As are you."

Nothing she could have said would have made him feel better. His head was beginning to hurt. He wondered if it was Sakura's doing. "Then what was I to you then? _A replacement?"_

The word struck a chord in the pink-haired girl. She started to shiver. "That's not true."

"That's it. Now that he's back, you don't need me anymore."

"That's not true!"

"Then tell me the truth!" he shouted.

Sakura evidently took a step back with a gasp, unconsciously raising her hands between her and Sai. It was the first time Sai had ever risen his voice to her, if they didn't count the time when he practically screamed at her during the Mukagawa Ravine mission, when she recklessly came back to save a teddy bear.

Sakura eyed him, a battle raging inside her. Sai could see it in her eyes. "Sasuke was always my constant goal, ever since I was young, Sai. When I entered the academy, it was always his standard that I had to set mine to. Even until we graduated, I tried my best to be the smartest, because I could never be the strongest or the prettiest. And then he became my teammate. It was the best chance that had crossed my way. _The best chance._ And so I took it. I confessed my feelings to him before he left the village." She took a deep breath.

Sai felt his own lungs deflate. He had known Sakura for over two years already, and he had indirectly known of her feelings for the Uchiha, but this was the first time he found out that she had actually told him that she loved him. Those words – _I love you_ – were things they haven't shared yet. And it made him so inferior to Sasuke all of a sudden. He hated this _bad feeling_. He had thought that it would all come in time after they got over the superficial dependency and the longing. His heart began to hurt more. The only consolation he had was that Sakura looked just as hurt as he.

"He never really loved me, but I chased after him, nonetheless. And there were times when we came so very close… but he just wouldn't come home to me."

And that was when she began to cry.

Sai wanted to cry with her. He wiped his nose weakly with the back of his hand.

"But now, he finally came back." Sakura, like a little child, wiped her cheeks roughly with her palms. She was not a beautiful crier. Her eyes were puffy and red in no time, and her chin dimpled and creased as she sobbed, but all the more did those signs of weakness make him want her.

"And where does that leave me?"

It took an eternity before Sakura finally replied. "I don't know…"

And that was when the pain in Sai's heart started to fade. It faded and all that remained was a dull numbness that throbbed along with his heart. He blamed Naruto Uzumaki for making him start creating bonds. He blamed Captain Yamato for going out of his way to make the new Team Seven like each other. He blamed Tsunade for making Sakura undergo a mission that made the lost emotions in his heart come out. And he blamed Sakura for having done such a wonderful job with it.

But the mission was over.

_They _were over.

"I'm sorry," Sakura suddenly blurted out between her sobs.

Sai turned away. "Go."

"Sai? You do understand, right?"

No, he did not. "Just go."

Sakura dissolved into more sobs. Sai hadn't really thought she was capable of being this emotional. He had always seen her to be the emotionally stable of their team, though he had heard over her breaking down when Sasuke had left the village.

Without another word, Sakura hurriedly swept out the room, sliding the door behind her with a soft thud.

And Sai was left alone in the room, feeling even more lost. He blamed Team Seven for all this! Whereas had he been impervious to those emotions, he wouldn't be hurting as much now.

With all the strength he could muster, Sai pushed himself up on the bed. He felt something bubble in the pit of his stomach. He felt it growing and growing, spreading through his body, fueling him with a strength that he knew wouldn't normally be there.

He pushed the blankets off him. They tumbled to the floor. He grabbed the thin tube of his IV, snatched it, pulled his vein free. Blood he hardly even noticed trickled down his arm, down to his elbow. He didn't care. The emotion was too much. The _rage_ was too much, of having been cheated after giving it his all, the way he understood the sense of the word _love,_ and having lost to a man who defied all logic without even trying.

Sai wanted to break something.

Staggering, he grabbed the stool Sakura had occupied earlier. With a primal cry, he heaved it over his head and into the window. Metal and glass collided and he heard screaming from outside. The sound of shattering glass and the sight of the gaping hole in the window was comforting. He attacked the side table next with both hands. This, too, joined the stool outside. More screaming.

Since there wasn't much furnishing in the room, he started to look for more things to abuse. He saw the long collapsible table on the nearest wall. It was the first time he had laid eyes on the thing placed strategically in it; a vase of daisies sat in the middle of the table, a thick stack of get-well-soon cards, a box of chocolates. Angrily, he snatched the vase in one hand, the cards in the other and staggered to the broken window. These things – these items that help people make bonds! – were the reasons for his misery right now! He raised the objects above his head, ready to chuck them out, when someone grabbed his wrists from behind.

"Stop it," came the deep, silent voice.

And all the strength felt as if it had just seeped out of him. He dropped the vase onto the floor, splashing water and petals everywhere. The get-well cards followed suit. They were immediately soaked in the water from the vase.

"Look at me, Sai," the voice commanded.

Sai slowly turned in place. Tsunade was looking up at him with an unreadable expression on her youthful face. She had let go of his wrists, and her hands were now on her hips.

"Do you feel like crying?" the Fifth asked gently.

Sai shook his head.

"Are you sad?"

Sai shook his head again.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Confused?"

Sai moved as if to shake his head again, stopped, nodded.

Tsunade eyed him a long time before opening her arms to him. Sai paused, then wordlessly crashed against her shoulder, as if the weight of today had finally caught up on him. In normal days, he would have found the humor in it, but right now, as Tsunade wrapped her arms around him, resting her chin on his shoulder (She had to strain, being a few inches shorted than Sai) he felt unexplainable vulnerability to the emotions Sakura had successfully planted in him.

He felt his eyes slowly close as his arms wound around the Hokage, gripping the two tails of blond hair hanging down her back, with such fervor that he doubted it didn't hurt the woman.

"What doesn't kill you," Tsunade murmured. "will make you stronger."

Sai wondered if Tsunade was trying to make him feel better. Her words sank into him like poison. He needed to be numb. Right now he wanted to jump into a freezing pond to justify the sudden tremors that were beginning to run through his body.

"You _will _be stronger. You're young. You have everything going for you."

Sai doubted this. His "everything" had just told him to have a nice life without her because she loved someone else. He wondered if he did anything wrong to deserve this. He wiped his nose on Tsunade's shoulder, not caring if she was going to scold him later. He needed to will the stinging sensation away.

Tsunade began to roughly rub his back. "You _will _be stronger."

And that was when no matter how hard he tried to wipe his nose on her, he began to cry. It was the most uncomfortable feeling in the world, when his face started to drip many kinds of fluids. He didn't care. The tears kept on coming. They just wouldn't stop.

Tsunade heaved a sigh, as if she didn't know what else to say. She continued to rub his back.

* * *

That night, after five long days of being away from her home since she went away to Water Country and two days since she got back to the village, Sakura finally decided to come home. She had been too busy with either the hospital or prison to even shower. She realized she stank. Bad.

And she had never felt so detached from her own home.

She noticed it the moment she turned the key to her apartment. It smelled pleasantly of charcoal and parchment. It smelled of Sai. She had almost forgot they were living together…

She felt the tears once again threaten to overcome her. She bit her cheek, willing the sensation to pass. But she felt her eyes moisten when she saw the neatly aligned sandals Sai had left behind.

Removing her own footwear, she proceeded to the living room. On the table sat two of Sai's ink brushes along with a pair of clippers. He must have tried to trim his brushes before he left for his mission. She felt her fingers touch the brushes tentatively, and her memory was filled with Sai's hands, and eyes, and skin, and hair…

She felt her heard lurch a bit, and wondered if she had done the right thing.

_Of course you didn't do the right thing! You just told your boyfriend you're still in love with the guy you've been obsessing over since you were a child._

She sat on the couch, feeling cold. How many times had Sai fallen asleep on this couch, waiting for her to come home? Her hands felt as the material wistfully, thinking of the times she had cuddled with him in the morning over coffee and biscuits. She rubbed at her eyes, and thought to herself; she had finally confirmed that she was not, after all, a very nice person.

But could she help that she didn't want to lie to herself? But even so, was it worth hurting her teammate like that?

No. It wasn't fair.

She stood up, pressed her hand on her forehead and headed upstairs, her thoughts filled with Sai and Sasuke and Sai. She was so preoccupied with guilt of having broken Sai's heart and giddiness that Sasuke was finally back that she almost screamed when she found Naruto perched on her window sill, his light blue eyes almost glowing in the darkness of her room.

"You scared me," Sakura accused as she hurriedly wiped at her eyes. She didn't even bother to flick on the light switch, afraid that Naruto would see her tear-streaked swollen face and make him worry more.

Naruto, still unmoving, merely blinked at her.

Sakura crashed on her bed, feeling Naruto's eyes still on her. "What do you want, Naruto?" she asked, her voice muffled in her pillow. Her heard began to do the cha-cha when she caught a whiff of Sai's scent in her sheets.

"I heard from granny Tsunade and Kakashi sensei. You poisoned Captain Yamato and ran off to poke your nose in someone else's mission."

Sakura groaned. "They already scolded me three times because of that, Naruto. You don't have to repeat it to me."

She heard Naruto hop down from the window. "I wanted to hear from you directly, the reason why you suddenly had temporary brain damage."

Sakura's eyes popped open, suddenly feeling shocked that she had to take this from Naruto, of all people. Sitting up, she jumped when she felt Naruto standing over her, arms over his chest. Sakura tried not to be intimidated. It was a hard task, since Naruto had grown several more inches over the years.

"It's not like you to be so reckless, Sakura," Naruto said silently.

Sakura furrowed her brow. Slightly irritated, she crossed her legs on the bed. "You are not in the position to talk to me that way. You, more than I, jump into things head first because of your emotions."

"I'm not going to deny that. But this is a different circumstance altogether."

Sakura roughly scratched her head and looked over at Naruto. Her eyes were beginning to adjust in the darkness and she could see him looking down at her in disappointment. _Disappointment_!

"The circumstances are the same," she shot at him.

"No they aren't," Naruto shot back. "If it were me, I'd have done the exact same thing you did. I'd have run off to get Sasuke back, but poison my Captain while in a foreign country? Captain Yamato was out for seven hours! In foreign territory! We were lucky he didn't get hurt, attacked, ambushed, killed!"

Sakura's eyes widened. She had not really thought about that when she slipped the sleeping powder in Yamato's drink. All she had thought was Sasuke then. "I'm sorry."

Naruto, having seen repentance, sat on the bed facing her. "Not only that, Sakura. You didn't even put Sai's feelings into consideration. How do you think he'd have felt when you schemed and disobeyed orders just for another guy?"

"You said you'd have done the same thing."

"But I'm not dating Sai."

That shut Sakura up. She looked away. "I just wanted him back so much, Naruto. You of all people would now my feelings for him."

Naruto stared at her in disbelief. "If I didn't hear it with my own ear, I wouldn't have believed it. You're trying to justify your actions with your feelings. You know better than that."

"What would you have wanted me to do, Naruto?" Sakura then demanded. "He needed my help! He wanted me to come!"

"And so you stepped on every single person's heart along the way just to get to him?"

"Yes!" Sakura exclaimed, and feeling utterly horrible about it. "I _did_ step on other people to get him back! And now he's here! Can't we just let it be as it is?"

Naruto shook his head. "Sasuke is my friend, and you know I treasure my friends, Sakura. But if this is what happens to you because of him, then I'd rather we have him brought back by different means. Not like this. This can't possibly be love you're feeling. When you love someone, you don't turn into some evil person you're not. People in love bring out the good in themselves. Not the bad."

Sakura opened her mouth to say something, closed it, discovered she did not have anything to say to defend herself from the truths Naruto had pointed out. She fell back on the bed, throwing one arm over her eyes. "I'm scum, Naruto. Just say it now."

She felt Naruto shift on the bed, and she felt her free hand being enveloped by Naruto's big, calloused ones. She could not remember the last time she had held hands with her teammate. But the warmth was a comfort to her she couldn't push away. She squeezed his fingers.

"You're not scum. You're just human." He squeezed back. "Sakura, you know I've always loved you." He paused, as if embarrassed, cleared his throat. "I don't _love _love you, that is. I mean…"

Sakura, despite herself, smiled. "I know, Naruto. If it makes you feel any better, I love you too."

Naruto laughed. "You know I'd do anything for you, and that includes putting you in your place when you do something wrong. And you have done something wrong. Sai loves you, Sakura. And I have a feeling that you do, too."

Sakura took a deep breath. This was not her. Naruto was right. Her obsession with Sasuke was turning her into a whole new different person. She had wanted him, longed for him, dreamed of him to come back. And she did everything in her power and more, and now he's back. So why didn't she feel happy? Shouldn't she be crying tears of joy?

Somehow, she already knew why.

And it was because of Sai.

Her eyes popped open. She hoped it wasn't too late…

* * *

_**I wanted to make Sai cry. XD I'm evil that way. **_

_**And thank you so much to foreverlovedbyyou. It's not everyday we get to find someone who would take their time to actually review each and every chapter. You are one of those people who can make a fanfic writer so very happy. You are forever loved. XD**_


	21. Chapter 21: Denial

_**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

* * *

Sai was released from the hospital on the ninth day. Tsunade had personally attended to him like a mother hen, and while everyone from Naruto to the Ink Shop's daughter was able to visit Sai at least once a day, Sakura had tried to see him three times in twenty four hours but was never admitted into his quarters. The Fifth had made sure of that.

When Sakura had angrily demanded for a reason, Tsunade told her the truth.

"While I am busy healing him physically and mentally, he needs time to heal _emotionally_, on his own. You showing up will make it harder for him to recover. Leave him alone. Isn't this what you wanted?"

As if Tsunade's disappointment wasn't bad enough as it is.

Sakura had found herself wallowing in guilt and self-pity everyday for the past nine days that not even a concerned Ino and a forcefully cheerful Naruto could have made her feel any better. Going home in itself was torture, as memories of Sai were _everywhere_. And since her probation prevented her from being away from the village for long periods of time, and majority of her hours were spent in the hospital, it was like self-inflicted torture. She would pass Sai's room a total average of five times a day, but was never able to even get a glimpse of him. The degree of sadness this fact had brought surprised even her.

She had not been aware how the former ROOT member had evidently become a constant to her life, in a span of only a few weeks of being with him. Had she been wrong with her feelings all along?

In an attempt to answer this question, Sakura had also spent a few hours visiting Uchiha Sasuke in prison. Most of the time he was lying on his bunk bed, his back to the bars. He seldom ate, and Sakura knew it was because of his pride. Uchiha were unreasonably proud.

_Unreasonably_. _Annoyingly_. _Unnecessarily_.

Once or twice, Sakura had tried to talk to him, ask him how he was feeling, how his five years had been. Mostly she was ignored, but once in a while – when Sasuke was in a relatively good mood – he would occasionally utter his trademark "Aa," or his indifferent "Hn." It frustrated Sakura to bits.

She was supposed to be in love with this creature, chased after him desperately, did everything to make him acknowledge her. His fifth to seventh day in prison, she had actually begun to wonder _why_.

In the fifth to seventh day, she wanted to see Sai so bad that she had raised her voice to Tsunade for the first time in seven years.

It had earned her a slap across the face.

This was also a first time in seven years that Tsunade raised her hand to Sakura outside the battlefield.

"You selfish little girl!" Tsunade had hissed. "You cannot – do not! – play with people's emotions like toys! You are my apprentice, close to being my daughter. You should know better!"

Sakura had tried to explain, plead her case. Tsunade wouldn't hear of it. For some reason, her Master was difficultly refusing to hear her out.

"Do not be a child about this. You wished for something so hard and sacrificed what you already had in your hands in the process. And now that you realized what you wished for wasn't _all that_, you suddenly change your mind." Tsunade had looked at Sakura in disgust. "Some people aren't as lucky in love as you. Women like _us_, we do not waste time dreaming about fantasies and love stories. We seize the reality of the moment. Before it slips through our hands…" There was a glassy look in her amber eyes, as if remembering something quite painful. She had ended the conversation then, slamming the door in her face just slow enough for Sakura to see Sai raise his head and look away.

Sakura did not cry after Tsunade's cold scolding, but this did not mean she admitted it. Unmistakably, she had made a grave mistake. She was, as Naruto had pointed out, merely _human_. Wasn't she entitled to mistakes once in a while? _She had made a mistake_. And she wanted to apologize. She had apologized to Captain Yamato already, and although he was not usually as lenient as Kakashi-sensei, the Wood-release user had strangely placed a hand on her head and affectionately ruffled her hair.

"I forgive you. I was young, once, too," was her captain's answer.

She had always found adults saying they were 'young once' very hard to believe. She could not imagine Yamato understanding her feelings about chasing after a boy because she was an idiot.

After her last talk with Tsunade, she had decided to give up on seeing Sai in the hospital for the time being, and buried herself in hospital work and the preparations for Sasuke's trial.

Naruto and Kakashi-sensei had been allowed to attend said hearing. Sakura had night shift in the hospital and was not able to go. She suspected Tsunade to be behind it all. She didn't care. She didn't want to be there anyway if or when they sentence Sasuke to death.

She had sat behind the reception desk like a zombie, however, and it was a good thing she was alone and no one was there to witness her wretched disposition.

Naruto had informed her of the good news the moment the trial was over: The elders and the Hokage, in a rare display of unity, agreed to keep Sasuke – or the very least the Uchiha blood and the _Sharingan_ – alive. Perhaps reviving the clan was most rational of the small number of choices they had.

Sakura didn't know whether to be happy or sad. Much to her surprise, Naruto looked just as disturbed. Sasuke was a _Genin _when he left the Village, and he was stripped of that rank, however lowly it was. He was to be under _Jounin _supervision at all times, with bathing ablutions and toilet breaks the only exception.

"If it's for the good of the Village, then who are we to question?" Sakura had pointed out to him.

Naruto had gruffly reasoned that he was not questioning the elder's decision, but admitted to Sakura that things were not going to be as simple as before.

"Unless you pull yourself together," the Kyuubi Host said dejectedly, and he left Sakura to suffer more inner turmoil in the last hours of her night shift.

* * *

The moment Sai was released from the hospital, he was surprised to find Ino Yamanaka waiting for him in the lobby. She had with her a potted plant adorned with a pink ribbon.

"From Sakura," she explained unnecessarily, almost desperately as she held the object at arm's length like a peace offering.

Of course it was from Sakura. From Sakura. _Always Sakura._

Sai had stared at it a brief moment before closing his eyes and brushing past her. He did not want any more confusion. It was too time-consuming, too energy-consuming.

"Wait!" Ino called out to him, caught him by the arm with one hand. "Can you wait a moment, please? _Please?_"

Sai, out of respect for Ino, stopped and turned around to face her. The sight of the potted plant in her hands made even faking a smile all too difficult to do. "What?" He didn't mean to sound too cold.

He just _did._

Ino feebly let go of his arm. "Try talking to her," she suggested out of the blue.

Sai felt his eyes narrow. This was the last thing he needed at the moment. "We have nothing to talk about."

Ino sighed, as if frustrated, as if tired. She hugged the plant to her middle. "You can't just avoid talking to her forever. She's your teammate. You wouldn't be able to function properly with all these negative feelings involved."

Sai's head suddenly snapped up, making Ino jump. "There are no _feelings _involved. For two years Team Seven had functioned satisfactorily well without these emotions running all over the place. We can manage. _I_ can manage."

"Sakura isn't like you. She'll be aloof. She can't turn her feelings on and off like a robot." Ino seemed to have realized what she just said, and instantly clamped her mouth with a hand.

Sai pinned the potted plant a glare, then, as if suddenly finding amusement with what Ino had just said, gave the girl a tight, close-lipped smile. "Contrary to popular belief, Sakura Haruno _can_ turn her feelings on and off. And she just did. _With me._ It's over. I already know how she feels. There's nothing to talk about anymore." And Sai turned to leave again.

"But what about _your _feelings? Don't you think it would be better if you let her know what you feel?"

The irony of everything made Sai want to laugh and cry for the sake of it. He looked over his shoulder and he knew his face was devoid of anything that Ino could interpret.

"I _have_ no feelings. I _have_ no emotions. There is just the mission. And if that mission will be successful if I have to work with Sakura Haruno, then so be it. _There is nothing to talk about._"

He left Ino gasping.

* * *

It was not everyday that the Konoha Eleven、or so the Village had named them, minus Sakura, got to gather together by chance at the dumpling shop at the edge of town. It was a Sunday, two days after Sasuke's trial and three days after Sai's release from the hospital. Everyone just happened to crave sweet dumplings and bean jam.

It turns out the group had mixed feelings about the Uchiha coming back to the village. While they had admittedly expressed relief that _'The Chase'_ was finally over, some of them had raised eyebrows at the leniency of the elders. After Naruto had explained the reason behind this, everyone made a start to complain that bloodline limits made a ninja indispensable. This made Ino and Kiba protest, but since everyone in the Rookie Nine, with the exception of Sakura, had a bloodline limit, none of them complained. Tenten and Lee, who didn't necessarily come from a certain clan, shrugged it off and joked about them being '_dispensable'_. The mood lightened relatively after their comment, and everyone started poking fun at Naruto and Hinata, claiming that they would produce a Hyuuga heir that would live for two-hundred years. The conversation shifted to Shikamaru, whose nickname spread through the group, thanks to Ino. By the end of their first round of dumplings, everyone had started calling the my-pace _Jounin_ 'Shika-Bear', much to his dismay.

Unfortunately, the good mood had vanished when Sakura showed up, the Uchiha with her. The pink-haired Kunoichi was guiding him by the arm.

Everyone had gone silent.

Sakura had initially blushed, unsure of how preambles were supposed to be made between… _ex_-friends. But come to think of it, Sasuke never really _had_… friends.

It was then did Hinata suddenly speak. "Welcome home, Sasuke…" She did not stutter.

Remarkably, this gesture shattered the heavy mood.

"Welcome home, Sasuke," Shino said after a while.

"Welcome home, Sasuke," Chouji followed.

Kiba settled with a manic grin.

Ino nodded, still looking skeptical.

Naruto, who usually had a lot to say at times like these, remained silent and unmoving, his piercing eyes on Sakura instead.

Sasuke, his own onyx eyes hardly seeing, blinked at nothing then turned away. "Hn."

Neji had to smirk. "Five years and that's all you have to say? You haven't changed a bit."

Sakura begged to differ.

Sasuke had changed a lot…

"I'm taking him to the training grounds. Kakashi-sensei is meeting him there," she said decrepitly, unsure of why she was explaining herself.

"Oh," Hinata said after a while when no one would react to what Sakura had said. It was as if the group didn't even know how to react to her being with Sasuke, or maybe they were wondering how Sai was? Sakura wondered if they knew.

It was, again, Hinata, who broke the tension. "Isn't… Sai with you?" She was a bit wary as she asked this. Though Sakura had known Hinata to be quite timid, she was never suspicious. She looked suspicious now.

Sakura was biting her lip under everyone's scrutiny, even under Lee, who had never looked at her coldly before. She turned away.

Sasuke, as if sensing hostility – and not really caring, because he _never_ really cared – let his seeing eye wander to the group, lingered a bit on Naruto, then smirked. "Are you stronger now?"

Naruto didn't make a move. He held Sasuke's stare, an implacable look on his face. "We grow up at a certain point in time, Sasuke."

This made the Uchiha sniff, rolling his shoulders confidently. He had always been too cocky for his own good. "You always thought you were special, didn't you?"

Sakura frowned. Although she had tolerated Sasuke's bitterness every time she had visited him, she didn't feel he had the right to speak up to Naruto as if he had been there to see his progress over the years, how the blonde had grown – like Sasuke – from a boy to a man.

"And you always thought you were better." It was not a challenge when Naruto said this.

But insecurity made anything sound like a challenge. Sasuke's smirk widened. "I always was. I always _am_."

The group around them started to shift uneasily. Hinata even moved as if to reach for Naruto's hand.

Naruto, if five years ago would have exploded in anger with what Sasuke just said to him, simply leaned back on one foot, his arms loosely at his side. "That's right, Sasuke. Keep telling yourself that."

Even Naruto had his limits. Forgiving was easy. Forgetting took time.

And he was not a snotty little kid anymore.

Sasuke needed years more before everything got buried in Leaf history.

"I… we have to go," Sakura said, and she did, feeling ten times worse than she did this morning.

* * *

His apartment seemed too empty for his liking, what with majority of his art supplies still at Sakura's place. He did not plan to retrieve them. He will just have to make do with what he had, and buy back the things he needed, _when _he needed them.

Remarkably, he had set to painting, not even bothering to change out of his ANBU uniform, which he had worn before he was admitted in the hospital. He settled with a brush in his right hand, his shoulders stiff from lying down in bed for over a week. His work was scratchy, but this had nothing to do with underused muscles.

Now that he had time to himself, it was then did he realize that he had rarely painted anything since he had started dating Sakura. The thought made him pause. He came to rationalize that he just didn't have that much alone-time since they were almost always together.

He stared at the pink and purple swirls on the canvas in front of him, putting his hand holding the brush down on his knee, not really knowing what to do next. Dipping the brush on black paint, he wrote 'Sadness' at the bottom as a title, grabbed the canvas roughly and ripped it in half. He threw it to the floor, not caring it hadn't dried yet. Standing up, he rummaged through the box where he kept his paints, seized every single shade of pink and green he had in it, and chucked each and every one of them out of the window, not caring if he hit anyone.

Unfortunately, he _did_ hit someone.

"Ow!"

Sai poked his head out the window and saw Ino shaking a fist at him while her other arm was wrapped around the potted plant she tried to force onto him earlier.

"Why is it raining pink and green paint bottles?" the blonde asked as she looked up at Sai in wonderment.

Sai ominously looked down at her, but didn't say anything. Ino only sighed, leaped up into the roof's banister leveled to Sai's window.

"The least you could do is relieve me of this plant. She wanted you to have this, you know," the Yamanaka said and propped said object on the window sill and stepped inside his room without an invitation.

Now he knew how Sakura felt when he suddenly barged into her privacy unwanted. "I would appreciate it if you'd leave. I thought I already made it clear that I'm not meeting with her."

Ino's eyes roamed around his room, pleasantly occupied. "For someone who claims he doesn't feel _anything_, you sure sound cranky."

Sai opened his mouth, then instantly closed it. "I like my alone-time." It didn't seem too relevant at all.

Ino crossed her arms over her chest. Sai looked away. He remembered that stance. It was when Ino would bully Shikamaru or Chouji into doing something for her. "Why don't we cut to the chase then, Sai? Sakura's tried to reach you the whole time in the hospital, to talk things out, maybe _work _things out. If it hadn't been for the Lady Tsunade, she would have been at your bedside every single day."

Ino did not have to tell him this. Naruto had spoken to him about Sakura feeling confused because of Sasuke, and the _Jinchuuriki_ had _begged_ him to understand. But… what was there to understand in the first place? Sakura's feelings had wavered because of an appearance from a past love. Was it so wrong to be even a bit hurt about it?

The remembrance made him scratch his chest a bit where it started to hurt. He did not like the feeling of being deceived. Glancing at the plant, he asked, "What is it?"

Ino's expression softened. "It's a rue sapling. It's a medical herb that's mostly used as an antispasmodic." She tilted her head to the right. "It… means remorse… in the language of plants."

Remorse.

_Remorse. _

Sai looked away from the herb, at that instant feeling incredibly confused.

Ino, once again, uninvited, sat on the chair in front of his easel. She crossed her legs in front of her and gestured with her hand. "This is your first relationship, and I suppose you don't have a single clue on what to do, and I understand that. But here's a penny for your thoughts; if every single relationship in this world was run by pride, self-pity and indifference, we humans would be getting nowhere." She leaned forward. "Lovers sometimes fight, because fighting is a good form of communication, Sai. Making mistakes, and having your significant other make mistakes with you is a form of growth. Understand Sakura, please? She's been hurting a lot even before you came around, and I honestly think you've done so much good in her, and I don't want to see you guys fall apart because of this one speed bump on the road."

Sai sneered at her. "And what of the Uchiha?"

This seemed to get her to fumble. She smiled sadly. "Everyone who has eyes could see that he would never love Sakura in the end."

"And so I get to _replace_ him again once Sakura finally realizes that?" he asked, incredulous. "What am I to you people? I know that you are friends with Sakura and that's why you don't want her to get hurt again, but what about me? Don't you think I could get hurt, too?"

He hated emotional pain. _Hated it_. Having both your arms broken was better. Much better.

Ino abruptly stood. "I'm here because I'm thinking of _you_! If I were thinking of _just Sakura_, I wouldn't be here to begin with. Don't let this fade away, Sai!"

Sai took her in, those frustratingly sagging shoulders, the frown, and then the plant. Remorse.

_Remorse. _

"Don't you have feelings for her?"

He touched his forefingers to his temple. Is falling in love this so goddamn hard all the time? No wonder most ROOT members were single. "_I don't have feelings,_" he said between gritted teeth.

And the next thing that happened caught him off-guard.

Ino had suddenly bent her knees, and she unexpectedly jabbed the base of her palm onto the bridge of his nose.

Ino had attacked him!

He was flung backwards, splotches of light exploded in his brain as he hit the far wall.

And Ino had one hand lightly on his throat, the other on his head. And he felt everything spinning, and blacking out, then lighting up again. He felt his feet disappear beneath him.

And that was when it hit him.

The presence of Ino – Ino herself – was in his head, probing, Poking into the recesses of his mind.

"_If you, by some unknown reason, lost your feelings just because of a little misunderstanding, I'll flush them out of you if I have to," _Ino's voice rang though the chambers of his skull.

And he felt sinking into his own subconscious.

* * *

As usual, Kakashi-sensei was late. They have been sitting on the grass of the training grounds for nearly half an hour, and their punctually-challenged _Jounin _was nowhere to be found. Sakura was starting to get really uncomfortable.

Five years ago, she would have giggled and giggled and giggled about the fact of being alone with the Uchiha, who was now sitting a few feet away from her, but right now, the only thing she was feeling was the excruciating sensation of sweat trickling down her back and neck. They didn't talk. Sasuke was as silent as ever as he stared at a very uninteresting tree across him, and Sakura was tired of trying to initiate a conversation.

That's why when Sasuke talked for the first time in thirty minutes, she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"So long as I don't use the _Mangekyo Sharingan_ anymore, my eyesight won't deteriorate any further than this." He pulled one of his knees to his chest. "I'm going to escape again."

He sounded as if he just announced he was going to the toilet. Sakura stared at him in disbelief. "You can't."

Sasuke blinked. Sakura watched his handsome profile, that profile she had so wanted to look at almost every waking moment of every day when she was twelve. He was handsome, even more than before, but there was a certain – _something_ – that hung around his person that made her shiver. That aura felt even more evil, more menacing than the cursed seal…

"I can't stay here and make baby Uchihas for this village," he spat out bitterly. "They want me to revive the clan."

"Isn't that what you've always wanted? Revive your clan?"

"_I am not a dog you breed to make strong puppies!"_ he snarled.

Sakura had to back away. She doubted any female in the Village would want him as a mate, anyway. She chewed on her bottom lip. Sakura bowed her head. "Is that the condition they gave you in your trial?"

"The village wants the _Sharingan_ alive in Konoha. They don't want the bloodline limit to die."

Sakura kept her head lowered. This was the most Sasuke had ever spoken to her in the past days. "It's a valuable Village asset, Sasuke."

"I am not an _asset_! I was a ninja!" He turned away. "And now I'm not even that."

Sakura felt irritation bubble somewhere at the back of her throat. "And whose fault is _that_?"

That was when Sasuke finally turned to look at her. It was probably because Sakura had never questioned him before. _Ever._

Sakura met his gaze bravely. His dark eyes, those that usually made her swoon before, now left an empty lump at the base of her stomach. "I… We begged you to stay. The night you left, Neji, Chouji, Shikamaru, Kiba and Naruto risked their lives to bring you back. Neji and Chouji almost died. Lee, who was barely recovered, fought to get you back. Gaara, Temari and Kankurou got involved just because of you…"

Saying these things… she knew it was too late. Five years was just… too late.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her. "I never asked you fools to do so. I left on my own accord. And I got my business done."

"And are you happy with it?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke didn't answer.

"Are you satisfied? You got strong enough to kill Itachi. Now that he's dead, are you happy?"

"Whatever satisfaction and happiness are, it's not here. Not in the Leaf. _Never in the Leaf._"

It didn't hurt as much as Sakura thought it would, the admission that he did not find happiness in the Village.

_"He doesn't belong anywhere. He never did. He never_will_. You'll see when you meet him."_ It was what Karin had told her on the boat on the way back to the mainland. She believed her now.

"You will help me escape," Sasuke said. It was not a request.

It was a command.

And it was Naruto's voice that started to ring in her head now._ "Sasuke is my friend, and you know I treasure my friends, Sakura. But if this is what happens to you because of him, then I'd rather we have him brought back by different means. Not like this. This can't possibly be love you're feeling. When you love someone, you don't turn into some evil person you're not. People in love bring out the good in themselves. Not the bad."_

It was then did she realize that things were a lot less complicated with Sasuke out of the way. He never wanted to be here in the first place. She wondered how desperation had made her blind, and how that blindness made her think it was better they get him back. She buried her face into her arms. She wished she could turn back time and redo things on the events with Sasuke.

_With Sai._

Sakura felt her heart hurt._ Especially with Sai._

She had always been self-righteous, and she believed that she made right decisions majority of the time. People had said she had a good head on her shoulders, and that her judgment was flawless. Tsunade had taken her in because of this. No wonder her Master was so mad at her. While she had made such a common mistake on an everyday-life circumstance, how was she to be trusted making big decisions in important missions?

"You shouldn't have told me your plan. I could tell someone about it," Sakura said to him.

Sasuke smirked. "You won't. You _will_ help me escape. And you will do it _fast_."

Sakura felt her right cheek twitch. She glared at him. "And you're just dripping with confidence that I'll help you, because?"

Sasuke's unseeing eyes met her green ones. He was no longer smirking. "Because you will do everything for me. Isn't that what you said to me, five years ago?"

Sakura wrapped her arms around her, broke their gaze.

Naruto's voice echoed through her head again.

"_We grow up at a certain point in time, Sasuke."_

Sakura shook her head. "I can't break you out, even if I wanted to."

"Alone, impossible. But maybe with a little help, it can be done," said a voice from behind them, making Sasuke bolt to his feet and Sakura dryly looked over her shoulder.

Kakashi-sensei stood a few feet away from them, his masked face stuck inside his dirty book.

Sasuke eyed him suspiciously. "What are you saying?"

His book closing left an echoing snap across the training grounds. "You want out so badly? I'll help you get out. And so will a few others." Kakashi's practical eye stared at the Uchiha pointedly. "On one condition."

Sakura felt sweat bead her brow. Kakashi-sensei never did give fair conditions.

She had wanted to wait and listen, but Kakashi had turned to her and said, "The Lady Tsunade is looking for you. She said to meet her by the river in half an hour. Can you make it?"

A strange summons. While Tsunade always wanted her in either the Hokage Tower, or the hospital, being summoned to the river was a first. She wondered if Tsunade was angry enough to drown her in it.

She nodded. "I'm on my way."

She left with Kakashi and Sasuke staring at each other, dark eyes against one equally dark one.

She hurried away.

Half an hour later, she was facing a very stern Tsunade leaning on an enormous scroll by the river's edge.

"You have a month's probation. Don't waste the chance," Tsunade said. "It's time you sign Katsuyu's contract."

Sakura felt faint.

* * *

_**A/N: I've always wondered why Sakura stopped getting stronger after her training with Tsunade when she could be so much more… XD**_

_**I'm down to four more chapters, and I can't wait to finish! Expect the next chapters to come: Prison break, action, fluffy fluff, drama and a wedding! **_


	22. Chapter 22: Realization

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

_**A/N: Forgive this chapter. I am really not good with action scenes.**_

* * *

Ino felt herself floating down a corridor lined with full length mirrors on either side. The environment was emitting an eerie light that came from everywhere and nowhere, making her squint. She looked up and saw a sky that looked like it was drawn with charcoal. Looking down, she saw roughly chalked-up grass, as if a child had been naughty with a green crayon.

Much to Ino's surprise, everything seemed blurry, as if she were under water.

She was, unmistakably, inside Sai's mind.

And she could feel the raw pain radiating from the very _air _around her. She rubbed her arms self-consciously. There had been times when her father had let her participate in probing the minds of petty thieves and common criminals the neighboring villages asked the Leaf to find justice for. And every time Ino did it, she felt incredibly dirty after.

Right now, as she dwelled in the recesses of Sai's mind, she felt like crying. The confusion was practically _visible_ to her, as if everything in the former ROOT member's mind was one big static storm.

She peered into the nearest mirror to her right. She saw Sai at fifteen or sixteen, sitting on the rooftop of one of the main buildings in the market place of the Village. It was the first time he had an encounter with Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji. She felt the amusement Sai felt then, at seeing Naruto fight.

In other mirrors, she saw Kakashi-sensei, and felt Sai's desire to spar with him.

More mirrors dedicated to Naruto revealed themselves to Ino as she glided down Sai's literal memory lane. Some of them revealed Shikamaru and Chouji, then there was Hinata and Kiba. There were even a few memories of Shino when they went after the Sanbi, of which emitting a feeling of respect, and then there were memories of Lee, heavily radiating jealousy.

And then there were mirrors projecting Sasuke.

Ino had to skirt away from these. Nothing but raw and pure hatred emanated from them.

Ino kept walking.

There was a mirror of Tsunade glowing red, of motherly love.

Of Ino, glowing yellow, of friendship.

More of Naruto, glowing a pure white, brotherly love.

There was a mirror of Yue, stinking of regret.

A mirror of a raccoon, also of regret.

Ino did one full turn in confusion.

There were no mirrors of Sakura.

"Sai! I know you can hear me!" she shouted into the charcoal sky. "Where are they?"

No one responded.

And in the silence, she heard the footsteps coming from behind her. Whirling around, she blinked in wonderment when she saw a dark-haired, dark-eyed pale boy about five or six standing a few feet from her, twiddling his thumbs.

Ino kneeled in front of him and encouragingly held out her hand. "There you are. Where are they?"

This young Sai, his handsome features already prominent even at such a young age, hesitated a brief moment before saying, "I hid them all. In… a secret place." He snubbed his hand. "I'm not gonna tell you."

"Why not?" Ino asked, her hand still going out to him. "Don't you want to be with her?"

The young Sai bowed his head. "It hurts…" he started to rub at his chest. "Somewhere here…"

"That's the beauty of love, Sai. That even though we know there's a possibility for us to get hurt, we take that plunge anyway."

The boy raised his head to her. "Why?"

"Because loving someone is well worth it."

Sai took her hand. Above them, the sky was suddenly bathed in blue. "Tsunade said love is a gamble. Is that true?"

"It depends on how you believe it."

"What do you think?"

Ino squeezed his hand. "Don't you think it's more of a sport than a gamble?"

The young Sai looked around him, at the thousands of mirrors around them. "A sport?"

"The outcome depends on your skill, not on luck."

The charcoal-clouds suddenly were splashed in white. The young Sai blinked. "I don't … believe… in luck."

"You don't?"

"I don't!"

The ground beneath them, the crude grass drawings sprang to life.

"Why not forgive Sakura?"

"Because…" the young Sai was biting his lower lip now. "Because I feel like pressing myself to her would be a bother to her. She loves someone else…" He began to sniff. He took his hand back and twiddled his thumbs again.

"It's a game, Sai! If you don't fight, you don't win! Do you want to lose to Sasuke?" Ino asked.

Sai shook his head vigorously.

Somewhere above them, Sai's voice rang out: _"If falling in love were a mission, we shouldn't base it on luck, but on our skills, correct? I don't accept failure, because it brings…__very bad feelings. And I don't like__bad feelings."_

Ino blinked and looked around. She finally realized the sudden burst of color in their surroundings.

"You love her, don't you?"

"She doesn't love me," said Sai.

"I doubt that, but even if she didn't, does it matter? Tell her how you feel." Ino reached out her hand again and smiled when she saw not the young Sai, but the Twenty-year-old Sai, kneeling in front of her, head bowed, one hand lightly scratching at his chest. "Let's go."

Sai stared at her hand, and after a full minute of hesitating, he took it.

The two mirrors on either side of them suddenly flipped around. Sakura forcefully injecting an antidote onto Sai's wounded arm was in one, Sakura sitting across Sai in the library in the other. Both mirrors were glowing a warm pink glow…

Ino pulled Sai standing. "You love her, don't you?"

Sai looked away. "Maybe…"

Ino pulled at him to follow. The mirrors they passed one by one flipped over, each and every one revealing Sakura at one point in time, smiling, crying, cooking, training. There was a mirror where Sakura and Sai were in the hospital ward, and Sakura was tearing at his clothes. Ino decided to ignore that. She nodded at Sai encouragingly. _"You love her. Don't you?"_

Sai watched the mirrors, as if in a daze. He gave a start, then nodded at Ino. "Yes… I do."

And everything disappeared in a blur of pinks, yellows and purples.

Ino had to smile.

And Sai woke up gasping, as if breaking out of the surface of a frozen pond, his nose bleeding and his heart racing.

Ino was on her knees, also out of breath. "Men and your pride…"

Sai wildly looked around his room, as if searching for something. Without waiting another second, he scrambled to his feet, leaped out the window and was on his hands and knees on the rough pavement, hastily raking the pink and green ink bottles he had chucked out earlier into his arms, almost out of desperation.

Ino could only watch in amazement.

* * *

The month passed eventful for the Leaf, though majority of the affairs were traded with discretion, hand signs and plotting looks between Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, Chouji and Kiba. Only Sakura, who was truly aware of what was going on, noticed the trading of information between the men. She worried about every single day. Was Kakashi-sensei _serious_ about breaking Sasuke out? And was he actually _serious_ about getting the five of Konoha Eleven involved in what could be an act of treason?

She frowned, inquisitively asking herself if it was just pure coincidence that Kakashi had chosen the group Shikamaru had formed five years ago to retrieve Sasuke. She didn't care – or at least she pretended not to. Tsunade's _Kuchiyose_ training was already making her head hurt as it is.

And Sai suddenly spending an absurd amount of time with Ino was not helping, either.

Out of respect for Sai's obvious wish to never speak to her again, she had stayed away. There were certain times that she saw him going out of the Village alone, and sometimes with Naruto and Captain Yamato. He made it a point to avoid looking at her, as if doing so would blind him. And Sakura had taken advantage of those times to stare at him.

She did not believe a man could look this beautiful to her. There was no mistaking it; she missed him.

Didn't _he _miss _her_?

It was like he had stopped caring altogether. If it weren't for her pride, she would have confronted Ino about it, but she was just too scared of what she would find out. There had been times when Ino had tried to approach her, but Sakura made it a point to run away, making silly excuses. It was a good thing Ino was too busy for Shikamaru and Temari's wedding to pester her, and Sakura herself, was busy training.

Unlike Naruto's insistence that Summoning was difficult, Sakura got the hang of it after two days. Sakura being in good terms with Katsuyu must have contributed to that, whereas Naruto and Gamabunta weren't exactly friends when they were introduced.

Rumor had it that Sasuke could already Summon Orochimaru's snake, Manda. Sakura only thought it fitting that she too, get a move on with her _Jutsu_.

_"You've trained for Tsunade for two and a half years, and you've gotten strong with that, but after that, have you really been training at all? You've become a medic ninja and resigned yourself to the hospital. And that in itself is good, but then you can't complain about being weak when you haven't done anything to level up after that."_

Of all the things she had to remember. Why did Sai have to invade her head when she needed to concentrate?

Tsunade kneeled down beside her, one eyebrow raised and the corners of her mouth turned up in a teasing smile. "Are you all right?"

Sakura nodded, feeling her cheeks coloring. Looking down at the bleeding thumb of her right hand – the hand that she used to sign the contract with Katsuyu – she tried to avoid the Fifth's gaze. It was the first time she was alone with Tsunade since her rough scolding, and she still didn't know where to start her apology. She had been looking for the right timing all month, but seemed to always be interrupted by Tsunade's unexpected explanations and out-of-the-blue attacks.

"I can't summon Katsuyu when I can't concentrate, Master," Sakura reasoned out, healing her thumb meekly.

Tsunade's smile faltered a bit. "All right. We can always tell your opponent to wait five seconds because you need to concentrate on Summoning an ally."

Sakura's blush deepened. "I'll try my best."

"I'll be expecting nothing less. Anytime you're ready."

Sakura nodded and looked up to find Tsunade gone from her side, probably hiding in the trees, waiting to strike.

The problem with performing the_ Jutsu_ was Sakura's apparent weakness with hand seals. She just wasn't fast enough. When she tried to reason this out to Tsunade, her master had told her that all she needed was practice.

Sakura thought otherwise.

She had trained on her chakra control, her best asset, and now that she's thought about it, the rest of her skills suffered. If it weren't for her brute force, her _Taijutsu_ would have been slightly above average, and her _Genjutsu_ skills were relatively satisfactory only when it came to canceling it out. If she discovered it fast enough, that is.

But as Sai had pointed out, she was too slow.

Unconsciously, she reached down her ankles, feeling the weights biting down her skin. She needed to improve on her speed.

She needed to improve on a lot of things.

She staggered to her feet. "I'm ready!"

No sooner were the words out of her mouth that Tsunade's attacks came in waves. It began with an earthquake that nearly knocked her to her knees until she finally had the sense to take refuge on higher ground.

She clumsily performed the specific hand seals, nipped her thumb and tasted blood.

"_Kuchiyose no – "_

"The elders want me to find a mate for Sasuke," Tsunade said as she suddenly appeared by her shoulder in a whirl of leaves, making Sakura fumble.

She turned around just in time to see Tsunade raise a finger to her forehead. She was thrown into the still shaking ground, screaming.

Tsunade was great at distracting her.

But then again, she knew she wasn't mentally ready for battle, but insisted on it to keep her mind away from thoughts of Sasuke and Sai and Kakashi-sensei's schemes.

Sakura clawed her way up the crater she had created upon crashing and came face to face with Tsunade's heeled sandals.

"That was dirty," Sakura muttered as Tsunade helped her up.

"It wasn't dirty; it was a practical thing to do: distract your opponent with whatever trump card you have up your sleeve." The older woman raised her thumb to her nose and rubbed the side of it three times.

Sakura eyed the strange gesture, as if she had seen it before. She looked away. "I was careless. I'm sorry." She sucked on her thumb.

Tsunade examined her critically. "Let's take a break. We've been at this for hours."

They settled under a tree, drinking cold tea they had brought with them to the training grounds. Or rather, Sakura drank tea while Tsunade complained about the absence of rice wine.

"You can do this, Sakura. Even Naruto can do it," Tsunade said after her complaints.

Sakura frowned. She hated it that Naruto was becoming a form of standard in the village; because she knew she could never match up. "Naruto is different. He's … _special_."

Tsunade shook her head. "You of all people should know that Naruto never had raw, natural talent. He was never _born_ with skill, but he was always _determined_. He made it this farm not because he was _special_, but because he did everything in his power to become what he is now."

The thought, ironically, made her smile grimly. Naruto had a dream. He had motivation to become better, to become Hokage. Sakura used to have a dream, too. And that was to bring Sasuke back. Five years ago, that dream was everything to her, and it was what led her to Tsunade in the first place. Because she didn't want Sasuke to leave her behind. Because she didn't want Naruto to do all the work.

Because she wanted to prove that she wasn't weak.

Sai had been right all along; she had lost the desire to become strong when she lost all hope of getting Sasuke back. She was content with being mediocre.

Again, she wondered why.

"Why don't we continue this tomorrow? Your probation ends today, but I'm not going to assign you field work until you perfect the _Kuchiyose_." Tsunade eyed her. "And… until you patch things up with your teammate."

The thought of Sai nearly made her blanch. She wanted to _'patch things up' _with him, but honestly didn't know where to start. She was just too embarrassed to have known her emotions were easily weakened by a childhood crush.

"I don't think we'd be getting along well," Sakura said as she stared down at her tea. "I – blew it. I made a mistake."

"You sure did," Tsunade said cheerfully, making Sakura wince. "But the world goes on and we ninja have to do what we have to do. Once you perfect the _Kuchiyose_, you're back on Team Seven."

"Understood," Sakura said faintly.

"Anyway, rest up for the rest of the day. Kakashi will be seeing you later for something very important."

Sakura looked over at Tsunade and watched as she once again raised her thumb to her nose, rubbing the side three times.

Suspicious, yes, but she nodded anyway.

* * *

At the strike of midnight, Sakura found herself panting against the wall of the Hokage tower's entrance, her heart in her throat.

The night was unexpectedly cool and clouds were scattered across the sky, bathing everything in eerie moon shadow.

Five hours earlier, Kakashi had knocked on her door and hastily relayed a series of messages to her monotonously as he pretended to read his dirty book.

"_Meet me in front of the Academy at eleven thirty. We're opening the Hawk's cage at midnight, and we're doing it as the slug orders. Be discreet, or go to jail." _And with that, he left.

… Which left Sakura nearly having a panic attack while waiting for orders from Kakashi via intercom, while in her hands was a basket of tomatoes.

There hadn't been much time for briefings when they met in front of the academy. She was finally placed face to face with the jail-breaking team. Naruto, Neji, Skikamaru, Chouji, Kiba and Kakashi. Sakura was the seventh member. Kiba had given her a suspicious look as he sniffed the air around her, and Sakura frowned at him, feeling as if something was missing. It was then did she realize Akamaru was not among them.

Kakashi laid the plan simply and swiftly.

Shikamaru was to act first. He was, conveniently, assigned to bring the dinner rations for the prisoners in the Hokage tower dungeon. It seemed like a miracle that Sasuke was still in jail when his trial had already been three weeks over.

Once Shikamaru opens the jail cell, they were to stage a fight where Sasuke would steal Shikamaru's kunai and stab him, and that was where Sakura would enter, claiming she was there to visit him. He would then take her as hostage and make an escape through the village with Kiba and Chouji making sure no one would be intercepting him.

Naruto would then be cutting them off before they reach the main gate, claiming to have visited Sakura's house to find she was not there. He would pose to stop Sasuke but because Sakura was taken hostage, he would pretend to lose.

Lastly, Kakashi would be stationed by the gate to cast a _Genjutsu_ on the guards for Sasuke to escape out the village with Sakura.

Along the way, Sakura would pretend to escape from Sasuke and run back to the village. She would have to wound herself, or ask Sasuke to wound her, to make it seem believable.

Although it might seem like a very annoying jail-break, everyone's acting skills were to be put to the test. The last thing they needed was to be suspected in being an accomplice in the escape of the Uchiha.

Sakura nearly jumped when her transmitter suddenly cracked into her ear.

"_Kakashi here. Can you hear me, Sakura?"_

Sakura pressed the transmitter by her neck with shaky fingers. "Loud and clear, Sensei."

"_I need you to relay something important to Sasuke once he reaches your position."_

"What?"

"_Tell him that I meant when I said thirty minutes. If he happens to get caught even after that head start, that would be his last chance."_

Sakura sucked in the air before sighing into the receiver. "Understood."

Sakura gripped the basket of tomatoes in her one hand and once again nearly jumped when Shikamaru's voice crackled in the receiver.

"_Kakashi, Sasuke insists he stab me on the face. I can't get stabbed in the face a few weeks before my wedding."_

Sakura blinked and waited for Kakashi to speak.

"_Tell him if he stabs you in the face – or any other vital organ for that matter – I'll be waiting by the main gates to bring him right back to his cell."_

"_Thank you,"_ Shikamaru sighed. _"We're proceeding to phase one. Sakura, get ready."_

"I'm – " she paused a bit, cutting the connection. " – I'm ready."

"_Start walking."_

And she did, step after shaky step, she proceeded down the stairs that led to the prison. Just as planned, she heard Shikamaru scream and there was a loud 'clang!'

She had no idea why Kakashi sensei would do such a thing as to free Uchiha Sasuke, or why Shikamaru and the rest would cooperate to do so, but Sakura, deep down, felt like this had to be done. For her sanity's sake, anyway.

And she dropped the basket of tomatoes and ran. She bumped into Sasuke, a bloody kunai in his hand. His unseeing eye closed, his seeing one staring down at her.

"Sensei said that he was serious when he said he'll just give you thirty minutes as a head start," Sakura said dutifully, if nervously, slightly backing away. "If you get caught, you're on your own."

Sasuke didn't reply to her revelation, but instead said, "I'm going to hit you on the head and take you hostage."

Sakura stared at him dryly. "Do you want me to put up a fight?"

"If I lose – which I might – this plan will go to waste."

Sakura shrugged. "Knock yourself out then."

And she felt a freight train hit the side of her head as Sasuke swung the butt of the kunai full blow.

She staggered backwards and was surprised to discover she wasn't unconscious. As if…

_As if Sasuke had held back._

"You hit like a girl," she mocked him.

Confusion flickered across Sasuke's face a brief moment. "I can hit you again, but that would waste too much time." He bent down and suddenly grabbed her behind the knees and swung her over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. "Don't move around too much."

Sakura grumbled under her breath and did as she was told. Sasuke proceeded through the sleeping village in haste.

"_This is Chouji. Avoid the alley of the Yamanaka residence leading to the park. I had no idea couples streamed into the park at this unholy hour." _He whistled.

Sakura, still pretending to be unconscious, hissed, "The Park is off limits."

"Hn."

"_This is Kiba. The Ichiraku alley is safe."_

"Take the Ichiraku route."

"Is Naruto there?" Sasuke suddenly asked.

Sakura paused, then pressed her transmitter with a numb finger. "Naruto?"

"_Yeah?" _came the blonde's voice as if bored.

"Are you ready? We're passing Ichiraku."

No response.

"Naruto?"

"_I'm ready."_

Sakura dropped her hand. "He's waiting."

Sasuke grunted wordlessly as he ducked behind shadows of buildings and clouds, twice bumping Sakura into a wall and once scraping her arm against a rough surface.

Sakura didn't care. So long as this would be all over by morning…

She felt Sasuke shift her on his shoulders. "Have you lost weight?" he asked.

Sakura didn't get the question. "And you're saying this in reference to what, exactly?"

Sasuke didn't reply and kept moving. After a while he said. "You're skin and bone… You're still on one of those idiotic diets…"

Sakura did not feel obliged to answer as she felt that it wouldn't matter to Sasuke anyway if she _were _on a diet.

"You never grew back your hair," Sasuke pointed out.

Sakura didn't even know why he was making small talk like this. "I like it short."

"I liked it long."

Sakura blushed. She closed her eyes. "Does it matter what _you _liked?"

"Didn't it matter to you?"

Sakura bit her lip. "It used to. But you're just late, Sasuke."

This shut him up.

"_I see you." _Naruto's voice.

"Naruto's here," Sakura said, and Sasuke stopped walking.

This was what she feared most of the plan. By the way Sasuke had reacted to Naruto when they had last met, she doubted the Uchiha was not going to take anything personally.

"So," Naruto started silently. "Do you want to fight fair and square, or do you just want to get this over with?"

Sakura felt herself being lowered to the ground. She hurriedly backed away to see Sasuke and Naruto stare at each other dumbly.

"You would have been the first one to disagree on letting me go, Naruto," Sasuke said, the kunai in his hand looking so out of place after seeing him carry a sword. "I find it weird to see you helping in this."

Naruto remained unmoving. Sakura swallowed. It had been a while since she had seen her teammate look this wary. She did not like it. It reminded her too much of those times he would go berserk and tear everything in his way.

"I already told you. We grow up. Priorities change. And the village and everything it stands for is more important that a selfish, childish promise made eternities ago. We can't keep running after you, Sasuke. And we can't keep on sacrificing so many things for someone who doesn't even want to be here." In a blink of an eye, there was a kunai in Naruto's right hand. "The countdown starts the moment you walk out that gate. You have thirty minutes." And with that, he plunged the kunai into his stomach. With a grunt, he dropped to his knees in pain and crumpled into one neat heap on the ground.

Sakura gasped and almost ran to his side, but she caught herself immediately. Knowing Naruto, the wound would be healing in a matter of seconds. She still couldn't help but worry.

That was when Neji appeared out of nowhere. His _Byakugan_ was activated.

Sasuke looked over his shoulder at the Hyuuga.

"Don't turn back. The moment you walk out those gates, the countdown starts and I run to the Hokage tower to report your escape in half an hour," Neji said, his eyes traveling to the fallen Naruto. "Go. _Now_."

And although Sasuke was not used to being ordered, he grabbed Sakura's wrist and bolted to a run. Sakura ran with him. She looked ahead, saw Kakashi sensei standing by the gates, his _Sharingan_ exposed, the middle and forefinger of his right hand straight across him masked lips. The two ninja on guard duty both had glossy looks in their eyes, obviously under a _Genjutsu_.

Sasuke slowed down when he passed Kakashi, pulling Sakura with him.

Kakashi's one dark eye and one red one gazed at the Uchiha's troubled face. "Goodbye, Sasuke. If I ever see you again, it would be too soon."

Sasuke nodded. "I can say the same to you, Kakashi…" He looked away. "Sensei."

Kakashi's black eye closed. "Go."

And he did, Sakura being pulled along with him.

Sakura looked back over her shoulder.

And gasped.

She saw Neji and Kakashi, both of them suddenly had their thumb pressed on the side of their noses, rubbing it three times. Her eyes widened.

_Master Tsunade…!_

She felt Sasuke run through the gates, into the clearing, into the trees.

And the seconds started to tick inside her head like a bomb.

_

* * *

_

_**Dun dun dun!**_

_**TBC**_


	23. Chapter 23: Admission

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

* * *

If Sakura hadn't known any better, she would not have thought Sasuke to be visually impaired as they raced through the trees, branches and leaves a blur of shadows around them.

Sasuke's grip on her wrist was firm, like gripping the hilt of a sword. She winced painfully as her ankle weights snagged at protruding rocks at branches, but Sasuke kept on dragging her deeper into the forest, further and further away from the Hidden Village of the Leaves.

She dared look over her shoulder, peering into the darkness. She wondered how long he was going to keep on yanking her like this. Ten minutes have passed since they stepped through the boundary. Kakashi wasn't kidding when he said he would be timing them.

Digging her heels onto the ground, she skidded to a stop and pulled her arm free from the Uchiha's grip.

Sasuke staggered a few feet ahead of her before looking over his shoulder in confusion. "What now?" he asked impatiently.

Sakura frowned at his silhouette – it was the only thing she could see in the darkness. "It's time I stage my escape. You have twenty more minutes."

And she turned around as if to leave. She discovered her hands were shaking. She had grilled herself every day for the past five years that it had been _she_ who had let Sasuke walk away from the village. Who would have thought that she would be back on that same setting, only this time feeling exhilarated that at last, it was all going to be over.

"Wait," Sasuke called out to her hesitantly, his voice slightly rising.

Sakura turned to have him. In the poor lighting, she could make out his hand reaching out to her. "You're running out of time, Sasuke. Are you so confident that you think you can get away from us if we go after you again?"

She could see he had lowered his hand. "I can manage."

Arrogant bastard. "If the Hokage sends out Team Eight and Sai on your tail, you'd be sniffed out in a matter of seconds."

He knew this fact. He was silent for a few moments. She wondered what he was thinking. It didn't matter. She decided not to care.

"Come with me." He seemed to take a tentative step forward. "You had wanted to come with me then. I'm offering it to you now."

Sakura found herself taking a step back. Didn't Sasuke realize that she was no longer the sniveling love-struck girl he used to know? She shook her head. "As… _tempting_… as the invitation to a life of a rogue ninja is, I'm afraid I have to decline. There isn't anything that you could offer me that could make me go."

"I'll… take care of you," he said silently.

"Stop it, Sasuke. You know me better than to fall for that trap when all you ever want is a healer who can be there on your every beck and call." She looked away. "And I can't leave my team behind. I'm not like you."

"Hn," was all he said. And after that, "It's Naruto, isn't it? You'd choose him over me."

Sakura had to close her eyes and take deep breaths from the sudden anger that began to rise in her. "Leave Naruto out of this. You –" she hissed. Why did Sasuke have to pick on Naruto all the time? "– you don't even know Naruto. You were too busy plotting your little revenge to witness how he's grown."

"The idiot did not _grow_. He's still the same as before I left: recklessly heroic and righteously misguided."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at his hardly seen figure. "You have fifteen minutes," she muttered between gritted teeth. She slipped a kunai from its holster. "Now let's make my escape as believable as possible, shall we?"

She was all talk. She knew she didn't stand a chance against him if he ever fought fairly.

And her thoughts were justified when she felt his breath on the back of her neck in a blink of an eye.

She hated it when he did that.

"You've changed," he whispered in her ear.

"I just grew up."

"You're cold."

"You're colder."

She felt his forehead rest on the back of her head. "Come with me," he said.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders uncomfortably. "You're late, Sasuke. You're just – too late…"

There was a silence before he spoke again. "Sakura…"

And she felt a slight pressure at the base of her neck.

And her knees buckled beneath her.

Sasuke caught her before she fell, and before her eyes surrendered to the sudden sleepy sensation that threatened to take over her entire body, she saw a sliver of his face in the darkness. Those dark eyes looked down at her as he gently laid her down on the slightly moist ground before saying his final words:

"Thank you…"

Sakura tried to remain conscious. And before darkness finally beat her into submission, she saw Sasuke raise his head when a sound from somewhere above them caught his attention.

But Sakura didn't know what happened after that. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and everything disappeared around her.

* * *

Sai couldn't sleep. He lay in his sheets, staring at the ceiling almost unblinkingly. Finally giving up, he got out of bed and went to get a glass of water from his very bare kitchen, giving the Rue sapling sitting on his window a longing glance.

And what was when he saw her.

It was an hour past midnight when Ino Yamanaka ran below his window to the direction of the hospital. She was wearing a robe, baby blue pajama bottoms peeking from under it. Her feet were clad in… _rabbit slippers? _

Curiosity getting the best of him, he leaned out the window just in time to see Neji leaping from roof to roof towards the Hokage tower, as if in a hurry.

Frowning, he grabbed several scrolls and brushes, carelessly stuffing them in his backpack and fished his _tanto_ from the rack by his bed. Looking down at himself dressed in an over-worn black shirt and ankle-long grey trousers, he decided that this was not the time to change clothes. Strapping his pack on and slipping his sheathed blade at the waistband of his pants, he leaped out the window into the sleeping village.

Much to his surprise and displeasure, he bumped into Kakashi on one of the roofs. He looked like he was hurrying from the gates of the village towards the Hokage tower.

"Good evening… morning…?" Sai greeted, suspicion overtaking him at the sight of his _senpai_ at such an hour.

Kakashi examined him with that one black eye of his, then he smiled an unseen smile that was only evident when his eyes playfully creased. "Nice night out, yes?"

Sai leered at him. "You came from the gates."

"Why, yes I did."

"You live in the other side of the village," Sai pointed out.

"Indeed."

Sai's curiosity continued to build. "I saw Ino in bunny slippers running towards the hospital."

"Bunny slippers, you say?"

Kakashi seemed to have missed the important part of what he just said. Sai tried again. "Neji was also rushing to the Hokage tower."

Kakashi stared at him, then in a split second, the _Jounin_ had his arm around Sai's neck in a friendly – but still stifling – chokehold. "You're too observant for your own good, Sai."

Sai doubted it was a compliment. "What are you up to?" He seemed to have taken to questioning Kakashi's motives lately. He had started doing so ever since the Uchiha returned to the village.

Kakashi pulled him closer. "I'm going to let you in on a little secret, only if you hear me out to the very end, that is. Got it?"

Sai frowned even more.

Kakashi released him and they squatted on their haunches on that random rooftop, face to face. "Sasuke has escaped."

"…"

"…"

"_What..!"_

"Shhh! Hear me out first!"

Sai was on his feet. "We can't be sitting here while a rouge nin – " Kakashi pulled him back down.

"Neji is on his way to get orders from the Hokage as we speak. He was informed by Hinata when she couldn't find Naruto at his place and went looking for him. She found him injured a few hundred meters from the village gates. Hinata had called Kiba and Chouji for help and the two had taken Naruto to the hospital."

Sai's frown deepened. "I can hardly believe that… Naruto losing to Sasuke."

"Well, you see, that's the problem. Sasuke had taken Sakura hostage and – _**OI! **_Where are you going? "

Sai had pounced from the rooftop down into the alley, breaking into a run towards the gates. Kakashi bound after him.

"_Sai_! I told you to hear me out…!"

Sai felt – something – in the pit of his stomach. Anger, worry and panic all wound up in a tight ball in the middle of him. He looked over his shoulder at Kakashi who was desperately trying to keep up with him. For some weird reason, Sai's face broke into a cheerful smile. "If he touches even one hair on her head, I'll kill him."

"Listen to me!"

"There's no time."

"You don't even know where they are!"

"Give me two minutes." A flurry of scrolls and with a brandish of a brush, a huge Falcon came to life before Sai. He was on the beast in one fluid motion, leaving Kakashi staring after him helplessly.

The moment he was alone, thoughts paraded through Sai's mind. Something wasn't right with tonight, and now that he thought about it, he wished he _had _stayed to at least listen to what Kakashi had to say.

Conjuring up more mice and dropping them into the trees below him, he hovered over the village parameter in circles. It was impossible to get a visual of anything in the darkness. Damn Sasuke had to pick a night when there was no moon.

It didn't matter. He just hoped Sakura was all right.

No sooner did the thought pass him did another one hit him like a ton of bricks.

Could it be Sakura actually wanted to go with Sasuke?

The possibility was too painful to even consider, but it was not farfetched. And if it were true, he'd look like an idiot running after them, waving his _tanto_ around in the name of misplaced chivalry.

He shoved the jealous feelings aside. He had no use for it. Right now, he needed to stop Sasuke from leaving the village, and he needed to retrieve a fellow Leaf nin along with him. It was a mission. Emotions didn't apply. They didn't have to.

But he could not help but grin sadistically at the perfect excuse to kick the crap out of the Uchiha after everything.

After all, the guy stole his girl.

What a joke. Sakura didn't get _stolen_; she had, in her own free will, _waltzed_ into Sasuke's arms even when he obviously didn't care about her.

Sai's hands tightened into fists. All logic pointed towards the option of forgetting about Sakura Haruno, even after Ino had forcefully made him realize that he was, after all, deeply, madly in love with her. But hearts don't lie, or so books had taught him, and no matter how Sai had tried to forget or deny himself, the bonds that Team Seven had made him were simply too strong.

And in the end, contrary to what people thought, you can teach a dog new tricks, but you can never teach it to _unlearn _what you taught.

It was too late.

Sakura had taught him to love her.

He couldn't stay away.

At the back of his mind, he felt one of his mice finally discover where Sakura was.

His heart jumped in his chest, making him wince. She was unconscious, but alive. Sasuke was nowhere to be found.

Soaring lower over the sea of trees, Sai headed towards Sakura's whereabouts.

* * *

It was past midnight, but Tsunade was not drinking. She had been patiently waiting for Neji Hyuuga to arrive, as planned, and the _Jounin_ came on time, as always.

"Lady Hokage, Sasuke Uchiha has escaped. Hinata came home minutes after she had set off to Naruto's place and discovered Naruto was stabbed with a kunai in the stomach not a few hundred meters from the outskirts of the village. I instantly alerted the members of his batch, and Kiba and Chouji had escorted him to the hospital. Ino is now on her way to tend to him." Neji's brow wrinkled at the effort and beads of sweat matted his forehead.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at him. "Neji."

"Yes?"

"Your acting skills amaze me to no end," she said sarcastically.

Neji's cheek twitched. "I _am _trying my best."

Tsunade sighed in frustration. She wondered if they were going to get away with this without the elders knowing about it. "You mentioned Naruto being taken to the hospital, but if my memory serves me right, Shikamaru was supposed to have been wounded with him…"

As if on cue, Shikamaru walked in the room with a bloody arm. "You completely forgot about me, didn't you?"

Neji turned to him. "Wasn't Kakashi supposed to be the one to _'discover' _you?"

Shikamaru walked over to Tsunade, who was able to mend his arm in a second. "Kakashi didn't come. I waited for him for – "

Kakashi suddenly appeared in the room in a poof of smoke. "Sorry I'm late."

Shikamaru slipped an unlit cigarette between his lips and started another ear excavation while waiting for Kakashi's excuse this time.

"Sai found out," the copy ninja said calmly as he planted himself on the far wall.

Tsunade's eyebrows kept climbing up her forehead. "He… did? And?"

"Flew off on his ink summons the moment he heard Sasuke took Sakura hostage."

Shikamaru suddenly paused and pinned him a glare. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you did it on purpose."

Kakashi instantly procured his dirty book from his back pocket and hid behind it. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Tsunade's fingers began their desk-drumming. Kakashi always did love to complicate things. But she respected his judgment, however unorthodox it may sometimes be.

Neji was not impressed. "Sai isn't in the plan…"

Kakashi turned a page. "I know."

"He could try to bring Sasuke back."

"Mhm."

Tsunade intertwined her fingers together and rested her chin on it thoughtfully.

The moment Tsunade had learned of the elders' motives regarding the Uchiha, she had instantly informed Kakashi. Her forefathers had worked hard to build the Leaf out of nothing. They will not destroy its beliefs by resorting to medieval methods in procuring the _Sharingan_. It would be better to have the Uchiha gone than have the youth of the village be used and abused in such a disgusting manner as to _breed_ for the sake of _blood_. The Way of the Leaf does not treat their youth like animals.

Tsunade would not have it.

Scowling, she turned to Kakashi who remained oblivious of her glares. She did not know what he had in mind, but if Sai _did _happen to bring Sasuke back...

"Sasuke is – _was_ – my student. He won't get caught," Kakashi said dully, once again turning a page of his lewd book. Tsunade doubted he was reading at all.

"Sai can track a snake in a hundred acre rice field," Neji pointed out. "If he catches Sasuke, our efforts would amount to nothing."

Kakashi finally gave up on his book, closing it with a snap. "Sakura can handle him."

Shikamaru looked quite skeptical. "Those two have been treating each other like viruses for over a month now…"

Kakashi gave him an unseen grin. "That, I dare say, is Team Seven's problem, Shika-bear. Whether Sakura and Sai are getting along well or not, is none of your concern."

Shikamaru's face started to grow red. "You set them up, didn't you?"

"Team Seven's problem," Kakashi repeated, reopening his book and brushing Shikamaru away, as if to say the conversation was over.

Tsunade watched as Neji, who was not very tolerant with such things, opened the door and stepped out of her office. She smiled behind one hand and pulled out a piece of paper from under her desk. Now that the jail-break was over, it was time for the hard part; convincing the elders no one was involved in the disappearance of the last surviving Uchiha.

* * *

The darkness was what caught Sai off guard the moment he had plunged through the tree tops. Dismissing his ink summons, he reached over his shoulder for a flare and was mildly pleased to discover he was careful enough to bring one. Pulling off the tab and bathing his surroundings in a dull green glow, he instantly searched for Sakura.

It did not take long for him to find her. She was on the ground, her back propped against the trunk of a tree. He could not see her face with her light pink hair spilling down over it, her chin resting on her chest.

Without thinking, Sai ran towards her, touching his two forefingers to her neck to check for a pulse.

That small contact of the tip of his fingers with her slightly warm neck made his heart race altogether.

He did not know how to describe the feeling that overcame him at that very moment, knowing that she was unharmed.

It felt like– the _relief_ – he had felt when Sakura's head had surfaced the water when she was washed away in the river. And it was like– the _panic_ – he had felt when he woke up seeing Sakura lying naked in his arms in the underground river cave. And at the same time if felt like – the _nervousness_ – he had felt when Sakura first introduced him to her parents. And like the – _exhilaration_ – he felt when they first kissed. And the pure, unexplainable _joy_ when they first made love.

For over a month, _he_ had stayed away, and _she_ had stayed away. And he thought that everything was all right with that. He had decided that even if Sakura _did _love someone else, that was not going to stop him from loving her from afar. Ino had insisted he approach her, confess to her his feelings. But he did not know how to put his feelings into words. He had been afraid he would say something wrong and make things even worse. In the end, he settled with eyeing her when she was not looking.

There were times when he sensed her looking at him on occasion when he would leave the village, and not just once had he seen her sporting the ankle weights he had given her. This, too, had left him in anagrams.

And right then, as he kneeled by her unconscious form, flare in one hand and his other hand paused a few inches from her face, he discovered he had no idea what to do next.

He looked over his shoulder, waving the flare around to at least uncover whatever tracks the Uchiha may have left. As expected of a man who could hardly see, he had clumsily left broken twigs and footprints everywhere. He had half a mind to run after him, but worry over Sakura's welfare made him stay.

And once again, he was torn.

In the end, his duty started to outweigh his emotions.

Grabbing Sakura's shoulder roughly, he shook her.

Groaning, Sakura stirred, raised her head, unfocused green eyes met his. In the dull hue of the flare, dark shadows playing across her face, she looked so vulnerable that Sai had to fight the urge to take her into his arms and embrace her till morning. He restrained his emotions, commanding them not to get the better of him.

"Where is he?" he demanded, letting her shoulder go. It stung where their skin made contact. He wanted to keep touching her. She was cold.

Sakura blinked once, twice, as if trying to shake off the sleep from her eyes. She looked at Sai an eternity long before realizing who he was.

Those eyes Sai always thought to be beautiful widened at the sight of him. "Sai…?"

In the span of a month, this was the first time he actually heard her acknowledge him by name. He could not explain how much it made – _really good feelings_ – sprout from the bottom of his heart. Fighting those feelings down, he placed the flare by her knees and leaned back.

"He couldn't have gotten far. When you gather your senses, go back to the village. Reporting to the Lady Hokage is first priority. I'll go after – "

Sakura's hand shot out, grabbed his wrist tightly. "Don't go!" she blurted out suddenly.

Sai looked down to where she was holding him, traced her arm with his eyes, to her neck, to her face. She was staring at him over the flare. He could not even bring himself to pry her away.

"Sakura, if we don't hurry, you'll lose him forever," he said silently, feeling his chest contract at what he just said. "Let go. I'll get him back for you and –" He was cut off when he felt Sakura suddenly pull her elbow back and slammed her knuckle to his jaw. Nearly losing his balance as he skidded a few feet back, he knocked the flare away, plunging the both of them in unnerving darkness and an uncomfortably pregnant silence.

That was when Sai had absolutely no idea what was going on. He had been punched by Sakura more times than he could actually count, but all of those he understood were out of his insensitivity, and pretty much his social handicap.

But right now, he wondered what he was doing wrong. For the first time in a month, he was genuinely lost about what she wanted him to do.

His head still spinning from Sakura's punch, he could not even react when he felt her grab him by the collar of his shirt, dragging him to his feet.

"You… you… _YOU IDIOT!_" Sakura suddenly screeched, violently shaking him. "Can we just _forget_ about Sasuke for a moment here and _talk_?" She lowered her head to his chest, calmly adding, "Please?"

He didn't even think of defending himself from her. Her grip on him loosened, and even in the dark he sensed it. Her shoulders were shaking.

And she began to cry.

Sai's arms hung to his sides, unsure of what to do with them. Not only was the darkness making it impossible to react to what she could possibly be feeling, it was making him highly, _highly _insecure. He clenched and unclenched his hands. At the back of his mind he could see Sasuke Uchiha riding a huge snake and waving at them as he slithered away to freedom.

It was his mission to bring the rogue ninja back. It was his _mission_…

There was no _past_. There was no _future_. It was just the _mission_ that he had to worry about. But even so…

Sai gently gripped her hands, untangling her fingers from his shirt. "We've talked about this already. What else is there to know?"

Sakura was moving in front of him, as if she was looking for a good enough angle to see him in the darkness. That was impossible, of course. "I had wanted to see you in the hospital then. But the Lady Tsunade didn't allow me…"

"Ah… um…" were the only things Sai could mutter. He wondered if they could talk _after_ he's fished Sasuke back. "Sakura, what else do you want me to hear? We've worked together for two years in one team, and it's not like I'm not aware of your feelings for Sasuke Uchiha. If anything, it was my fault…" he squeezed her fingers gently. "… for asking you… to teach me… It was my fault…"

She let out a strangled sob. "_No_… "

Sai stifled a groan. He did not even know why Sakura always had to cry in front of him. While he knew that she was usually not this weepy in front of others, he started to think she was doing this to him out of spite.

"I… get jealous…" she said in such a small voice that Sai barely heard her.

He leaned down a bit, pressing his cheek against hers. "What?"

"I get jealous… when you spend time with Ino…"

Sai nearly keeled over. "_Eh? _Why on earth would you be jealous of that?"

That was when she began to whine. "Because."

"Because what?"

"Just… because… "

"O… kay…?"

She gently pounded on his chest with one fist. "I don't want to play tug-of-war anymore, Sai…"

_"With Sasuke, it was like a never-ending tug-of-war with myself, that you would lose either way…__"_

Of all the places she had to pour her heart out, she had to pick it in a dark, dank forest.

Sai did not know what to say. What did normal people usually say at times like these? He let go of her hands, wrapped his arms around her shaking shoulders. "You don't have to, anymore. Why do you keep on hurting yourself with him?"

Sakura took a deep breath, dropped her head on the crook of his neck, trailed her arms around his torso. "Because I'm human… and I made a mistake…"

There was nothing Sai could do for her but hold her until her sobs subsided into little hiccups. By that time, he knew that Sasuke would be long gone, and even if he were to set off now without preparation and the proper gear, he doubted he'd be able to go far.

But what surprised him was that it didn't bother him at all.

Because right now, he knew his mission was not to get back Sasuke Uchiha.

His mission was to hold Sakura Haruno in his arms and make her happy any way he possibly could, even when he knew he didn't have too much to offer.

Sai closed his eyes as he listened to her breathing. "Stop pulling the rope. There's no point anymore."

Sakura sniffed. "I had known, but thought it was nothing."

"What?"

"I could never be weak with Sasuke. It's only with you, Sai, that I can be weak and still be happy about it…"

Sai's breath caught in his throat, and he raised his face, eyes closed, to the unseen sky above them, He hugged her closer. "I miss you."

Sakura nuzzled her face to his neck. "Forgive me. I love you."

Sai's eyes slowly opened, and he wished there was even just a bit of light for him to see her face, because he had missed looking at her. His hands moved on their own accord, searching for her face, and his fingers lightly grazed what could have been her cheeks.

There would be plenty more time to look at her when they get home. And with the thoughts about Sasuke Uchiha completely forgotten, Sai grazed his lips against hers before saying, "I love you, too."

* * *

_**A/N: A month is too long for a lover's quarrel I know. XD But I just love Sai suffering because he's cute that way. **_

_**Answers to questions left on my review page:**_

_**-If I find the confidence that I could do justice to writing Sai a past, I would. **_

_**-The nose thing is a hint that Tsunade is in cahoots with Kakashi about letting Sasuke go.**_

_**-No, Sakura isn't going with Sasuke because Sasuke's a dick.**_

_**Oh, two more chapters to gooooo!**_


	24. Chapter 24: Contentment

_** Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.**_

* * *

When Naruto left with Master Jiraiya to train outside the village, and came back after two and a half years, it was one of the happiest moments in Sakura's life.

And that was also the same day Naruto had denied her the courtesy of complimenting her femininity.

"_So, what do you think? Am I more womanly now?"_

"_Don't worry, Sakura! You haven't changed at all!"_

She had punched the living daylights out of him after attempting to perform his perverted _jutsu_. That had been quite satisfying in itself?

The truth was, it wasn't just Naruto who had rubbed it in her face that she was just too strong to be feminine. After the desire to bring back Sasuke had convinced her to approach Tsunade for direction, her strength had grown in biblical proportions. She was no longer the damsel in distress who needed protecting. And although she had more than once tried to convince herself that this was what she had wanted, there had been instances she wished she were a bit more lady-like, like Hinata, or Ino, when she could depend, even for just a short period of time, on a man.

The fact that she could admit this to herself, made her feel – even just a little bit – that she had at least severed whatever feelings she had for Sasuke Uchiha.

That and because she tended on loving being weak in front of Sai, and Sai seemed to enjoy being the protector.

That fateful night of Sasuke's escape and their shared kiss in the dark forest, Sai had opted carrying her on piggy-back while she had her face buried on the crook of his neck. The familiar scent of parchment and charcoal filled her senses to the point of drowsiness, and she felt content to have him not say anything until they've reached the village.

It was still dark when they made it to the hospital, and although Sakura had spent majority of her probation in said building, coming here as a patient at this hour felt… weird.

The hospital doors were thrown wide open and the hallway's lights were only half-lit. The familiar scent of disinfectant and alcohol made Sakura open her eyes and raise her head from Sai's shoulder.

At the end of the hallway appeared a lithe form in a robe and furry slippers.

It was Ino, her long hair usually in a high pony tail, was freely cascading down her back. The girl saw them, gave a start and rushed towards them, a worried expression on her face.

Sakura felt her arms unconsciously tighten around Sai's neck, the jealousy bubbling inside her again.

Much to her surprise, Ino completely ignored Sai and had her hands on Sakura's face, peering into her eyes worriedly.

"Her eyes are unfocused, and her breathing is irregular." Her fingers glowed a faint green as they lightly trailed down her neck, arms and back. "I don't sense any major damage, but it would be best to have her lie down."

Sakura felt herself being lowered by Sai, and Ino was instantly supporting her.

That was when Ino turned to Sai and said, "Thank you. For bringing her back."

Sakura felt her hand grip Ino's wrist gingerly. "Naruto…?" she muttered. She had seen Naruto stab himself in an attempt to make it look like Sasuke had been forceful about his escape, and although Naruto's healing abilities were undeniably outstanding, Sakura wanted to know if he was all right.

Before Ino could answer, Naruto rounded the corner, dragging along with him a mop and bucket. It was then did Sakura notice that the floor was splattered with blood.

Naruto, his middle wrapped in white bandages stained red, looked up and waved at them, leaning casually, if not limply, on his mop. "Sakura! Sai!" he called to them.

"What on earth are you doing?" Ino demanded as she returned Sakura against Sai and ran to Naruto, giving his head a couple of bops with her knuckle.

"Ow! I'm cleaning my blood off your hospital floor, what does it look like I'm doing?" Naruto said as he shrank away from Ino, who snatched the mop from him. Ino then grabbed the bucket and started hauling it down the hall as she grumbled something about stupid idiots not knowing what was good for them.

Sakura, despite herself, grinned. She tried to approach Naruto, nearly stumbled in the attempt. Sai's caught her easily.

"Don't force yourself," Sai said silently, squeezing her shoulder.

Sakura nodded to him wordlessly, then turned to her other teammate. "Naruto."

Naruto's head snapped up and was by her side in a second, worry marring his whiskered face.

Sakura reached out a hand to him, and the blonde quickly intertwined his fingers with hers. Sai, seeing this, gently let Sakura go. She collapsed against the _Jinchuuriki's_ chest.

"How are you?" Naruto asked, his arm around her waist to keep her up.

"Sasuke's gone…" Sakura whispered in his ear as she gripped his shirt with a shaky hand "We… did the right thing, right? Naruto?" She wanted to hear from him the answer. Of all the people who had been involved with Sasuke Uchiha, no one had the better answer than Naruto.

There was a glassy look in her teammate's blue eyes, and it took him a while before he could answer. "We did the right thing, Sakura. It's… better this way." And he looked away.

Sakura's grip tightened on him. "Do you promise you'll never try to come after him again? Because I'll worry, and Sai will worry. And Hinata – "

The sound of the heiress' name made Naruto look up, a strange expression crossing his face. It was gone at once, as if it hadn't been there at all. And then he took to staring at Sai intently. "I always thought…" Naruto said. "… that if you keep on thinking about someone, he'll come back to you. Sakura and I, and Kakashi-sensei, we've been hoping against hope that Sasuke will come back to us."

Sakura watched Sai's face, as always devoid of expression.

Naruto squeezed Sakura's hand. "But if that person doesn't even want to be remembered, I guess there's really nothing we can do." He looked down at her. "You're okay with this, aren't you?"

Sakura bit her lip. She had asked herself over and over again, what ever made her want Sasuke to come home. She had made a long list in her head five years ago of the reasons why she needed him back. She couldn't remember a single one in that list at the moment.

It was over.

She knew that being a kunoichi didn't simply mean fighting on, but also about giving up.

She nodded. "Let's end this."

Naruto's blue eyes twinkled as he nodded at Sakura, then gently guided her back into Sai's arms. Grinning his trademark grin, he raised his hand in a thumbs-up sign at the two of them and said, "We should get our picture taken together. The new Team Seven."

Sakura, for all it was worth, rubbed at the side of her eye before a tear fell. She felt Sai's embrace tighten around her, and she nodded. "I'd love that."

Sai, whose pale face slightly colored and those glassy black eyes closed pleasantly, smiled one of those rare, genuine smiles of his. "I would love that, too."

* * *

The following day bombarded the Lady Tsunade with news of _Taka_ escaping from the Correctional Facility. This had caused the elders to grill the Hokage even more. For three whole days, the whole village had been under surveillance and the elders even went so far as to ordering ANBU members to trail Neji, Naruto, Kiba, Chouji and Shikamaru. As expected, no one even dared try to trail Kakashi-sensei, much to Naruto's annoyance.

In the end, no one was able to prove anyone had anything to do with the jail-break.

This got Tsunade in such a good mood that she allotted a whole day to Sakura for her training.

"To tell you honestly, I'm surprised everything went well," Sakura confessed as she took a sip of her water bottle. It was just past noon and the sun was hot against her skin. She and Tsunade had taken refuge under a tree for a few minutes' break.

"Of course it went well. It was _my_ idea after all," Tsunade scoffed, as if offended that Sakura even _thought_ of doubting her.

Sakura looked over to her. "What I meant was, how you got everyone to cooperate with the plan. Especially Naruto. He was, after all, the most desperate to get Sasuke back."

"And you weren't?"

Sakura blushed. "How many times do I have to apologize, Master Tsunade?"

Tsunade had to laugh, but the laugh was instantly cut off as she leaned her head back against the tree trunk. "Naruto, of all people, had been the most eager to let Sasuke escape."

Sakura found that hard to believe. "How so?"

Tsunade closed her eyes slowly. "It's because the mate the elders had chosen for Sasuke Uchiha… was Hinata Hyuuga."

Sakura nearly choked on her water bottle. _"WHAT?"_

"The elders were convinced to keep the _Sharingan_ alive in the Leaf, and the Hyuuga blood seemed to be the… _'most promising' _of the clans in the village. Hiashi has also been pressuring Hinata for an heir, now that she's almost of age. When the elders asked Hinata's father, the man couldn't refuse, even when he looked quite hesitant about it."

Sakura felt the blood drain from her face. "Does… _did_… Hinata know?"

Tsunade shook her head. "Only those who attended Sasuke's trial knew. So Kakashi and Naruto had been the first to pitch in with the plan." The Hokage wrinkled her nose in disgust. "They will do no such thing to the next generation of this village. Not in my reign."

It took a while before Sakura could actually recover from what Tsunade had just told her. The very thought made Sakura want to throw up.

"Naruto almost went mad when the verdict was announced. When I proposed to him my idea, he was almost deliriously ready to do anything. It was rare to see him follow orders so willingly."

In Sakura's mind, she remembered the look on Naruto's face when he came over the hospital to tell her the outcome of Sasuke's trial, the desperate look on his face before he stabbed himself with his own kunai, and the detached expression he had when they met in the hospital. It was because… he had known…

Tsunade snatched the water bottle from Sakura's hand and threw it over her shoulder. "Well, at least everything went well."

Sakura looked at her. She knew what the older lady meant. She lowered her head shyly and she fiddled with her ankle weights. "Everything went well, yes."

Tsunade placed a hand on her shoulder, making her look up. "We shinobi seldom receive the convenience of finding love in a battlefield. So when you do find it, you hold on to it, if it means risking your life for it. You got that?"

Sakura smiled ruefully. "I never imagined you to be the romantic."

"I'm not a romantic; I'm a realist. Besides, I do not want you risking destroying one of my most efficient teams by having little lovers' quarrels here and there when I send you and Sai together in a mission."

Sakura blushed. "We are very professional when it comes to our work."

Tsunade raised her eyebrow. "_Right_. So if I send just you and Sai without Yamato or Naruto, I would be able to count on you and Sai to keep your hands off each other while sharing the same tent?"

Sakura's blush deepened.

"As I expected."

"It's not like that!" Sakura blurted out as she reached out with her hands in plea.

Tsunade watched her intently until she continued.

"Sai and I are back together, but… things aren't the same as before…"

She was not exaggerating when she said this. The night of Sasuke's escape, Sai had brought her home from the hospital after Ino treated her light bruises and gave her a weak dose of morphine. She had been weak, but sane enough to grab his arm after he laid her down on her bed.

She had invited him to stay.

Sai had smiled at her and agreed, but he had slept in the other room. This continued for the whole week, and even though he would come home to her every night after a mission, he would kiss her lightly on her forehead, and still insist on sleeping in his own bed, or on the couch.

And Sakura was either too proud or too embarrassed to ask him to come to bed with her, though she was dying to feel his body against her once more. She had kept this small detail from him, thinking that if he thought distancing himself from her was a good enough revenge for her mistakes, then so be it. It was, after all, all her fault. It was punishment enough that he would be so understanding as to not bring up her blunderings on everyday conversation. For someone who used to be so tactless and insensitive, Sakura had been surprised to see him being so… _un-Sai-like_.

Sakura snapped out of her reverie when Tsunade's voice boomed in her ear.

"We've had enough of that. Back to training."

Sakura nodded and was up on her feet in an instant.

Tsunade, as always, did not waste time. She was gone the moment Sakura had turned to face her.

With the thoughts of Hinata in her head, and her heart heavy with thoughts of Sai, she felt herself tensing as she waited for Tsunade's opening attack.

* * *

Tsunade had sent the Retrieval Team plus Team Ten to deliver provisions in the form of food and medicine to the late Yue's shelters. Sai at first had declined the Hokage's orders for two reasons. One, he did not know how to react to whatever emotions he was going to feel when he visited the place where his past could have been. And two, he did not want to get separated from Sakura. Both reasons were tossed out the window by Tsunade.

For the last week, things had been strangely… off… between them. It had nothing to do with her. It was all him. There was just – _something_ – that was making him stay away for some reason. At first he thought it had been pride that was making him keep his distance.

In the end he found out it was _fear_.

Fear of what, he did not know. All he understood was that it wasn't a _good feeling_. But there had been times when he'd feel her eyes on him when he'd walk away from her after kissing her out of habit. And there had been moments when she would raise her fingers to his face as if to touch his cheek – or flick his nose? – but she would always stop midway and drop her hand altogether and smile uncertainly at him.

And that was when Sai had realized that it wasn't just him who was keeping away, but Sakura as well.

When he asked Ino for help, she had shaken her head at him in frustration and told him to fix it by himself. "Do I have to do everything for you guys?" she had said and muttered about love-struck couples who can't handle things on their own while she walked away.

Sai rubbed his temple in… irritation. Yes, that was the perfect emotion as his eyes bore holes behind Ino's head, who was kneeling in front of the lump of loose soil where they had buried Yue's crystal coffin. Hinata, Kiba and Chouji were kneeling with her in front of the grave, saying silent prayers, or whatever you say when you were in front of a grave.

Sai couldn't even bring himself to go near it. He did not even know why. At the back of his mind, he remembered the raccoon he and Sakura had buried in the training grounds not too long ago. The regret he felt then somehow resembled the feeling he had right now, only worse. He regretted having not listened to Yue when he tried to propose the prospect of Sai having parents. He regretted the loss of the titled drawings hanging in the shelter walls before it burned down, especially when there was a possibility that it was Sai who had drawn them when he was young.

Along with regret… came the _pain_. It was as if an invisible needle was continuously piercing at his heart, making him wince. He did not know Yue's death would affect him this much. There were so many things left unsaid, so many things left undone.

Sai closed his eyes and turned his back on the grave. He was surprised to find Guren looking at him with those cold eyes of hers.

"Good afternoon," Sai greeted her. Always a greeting to start a conversation. Always polite.

Guren jerked her head towards the grave where Sai's fellow Leaf nin were still kneeling. "Aren't you going to say goodbye?"

Sai lowered his chin, but did not let his eyes leave her face. "He was a stranger to me."

"He could have been something… _more_."

That was the truth. Once again, regret threatened his heartstrings. He nodded. "It was _my _choice to shut him out. It was _my _choice not to know."

Guren looked at him for the longest possible time, then, "Walk with me a bit."

Sai frowned at her. There had been only one time did he get to interact with this woman, and that had been in battle. Aside from the fact that she was capable of crushing him on a whim, she scared him. There was always something scary with women who had big breasts.

"All right," Sai finally agreed, and he let Guren lead the way.

It turns out that Yamato did a great job with the new shelters. Everything was made of polished wood and well-shaped rafters and banisters, not to mention it was huge. Sai did not doubt it was spacious in the inside, too. Yamato even had the kindness and the childlike imagination as to build a playground behind the building, composed of a fairly huge jungle gym, three slides and several see-saws and swings.

"It was two years ago that I got to know Yue. Yuukimaru was hungry, and I was desperate enough to steal food when Yue invited us in for dinner. They didn't have a lot, but he was willing enough to share. Ever since, I dropped by on occasion to help around with the children," Guren started as she gestured at the playground where several children were playing.

"What will happen to the children now that Yue's gone?" Sai asked.

"I will take care of them. I will be picking up Yuukimaru later and we plan on staying here. Just until things stabilize."

"That would make everyone very happy, I'm sure."

Guren started to observe him again. Sai had to look away. It was like one of those penetrating stares Ino gave him when she wanted him to say the things heavy in his mind. "I can tell you all about him, or at least everything I _know_ about him."

Sai could only blink. Guren was offering him a glimpse of his possible past. Just like Yue offered him his possible past. Sai's stomach started to do cartwheels. She was giving him a second chance!

Guren, those sharp eyes, continued to look at him eerily. "But even if I tell you, it would be like hearing about a completely different person."

Sai bit the inside of his cheek as his dark eyes met her bright ones.

She smiled. "My past had haunted me with regrets. And there were times when I wished I could turn back time and redo the mistakes I've done before. There had been moments I wished I were dead, if that would relieve me of my guilt of the sins I've done in my past." She looked away, back to the children innocently playing by the shelters. "Until I met Yuukimaru."

Sai was taken aback. He did not know why this perfect stranger was talking to him. He did not know why he was intent on listening.

Guren continued. "What I want to say is, I can tell you so many things about Yue, but they would only be just that: _stories_. I can see it in your eyes, the desire to know."

Sai bowed his head. "I had wanted a name," he said truthfully.

"What's in a name?"

Sai opened his mouth, closed it. He shook his head. "Nothing? Everything? Who knows?"

Guren suddenly touched his shoulder. Sai's skin began to crawl. "A _name_ doesn't define who you are. A _past_ doesn't define who you are."

"I…" Sai looked down at his shoulder where she touched him. He remembered having said the same thing to Sakura, that her past doesn't define who she was. Sai nodded. "You're right, Guren."

The hand on his shoulder tightened its grip meanly. "Tsubaki," she corrected sweetly.

"Tsubaki," Sai repeated quickly and he shrugged her hand off.

"When you find your special someone, you'll realize that everything – your past, your name, your mistakes – will not matter compared to what you have at the moment."

Sai rubbed his shoulder gingerly, but felt his heart skip at what Guren just said to him. Thoughts of pink hair, green eyes and salty cake filled his mind, and he smiled. "I think I already have," he said.

Guren nodded. "Don't ever let go, then."

"Hey! Sai!"

Sai looked over his shoulder to see Ino and Hinata waving at him.

"You ungrateful little cretin! Show Yue some respect and pray!" Kiba yelled at him.

"You'd better hurry, Sai. We have to get back to the village as soon as possible of we're going to miss the bachelor party we're throwing for Shikamaru!" Chouji added.

The thought made Sai cringe. He had read about bachelor parties from books borrowed from Kakashi-sensei. The knowledge of strippers jumping out of cakes dressed as half-naked bunny rabbits paraded in his head and he nearly shuddered.

He waved back. "I'll be right over." He turned to Guren. "Thank you…" he said, still quite unused to the words used when showing gratitude. "I'm looking forward to seeing you again some time."

Guren had to raise an eyebrow at him, but she smiled nonetheless. "Tell Naruto that Yuukimaru would love to see him."

Sai nodded. "I will." And he hurried off to his friends.

* * *

The fields in the eastern outskirts of the Village were memorable for Sakura. This was where she and Ino had become friends. And this was where their rivalry began.

The memory of her childhood made her smile as she plucked a daisy in front of her and added it to the basket of assorted flowers at her side.

"I was never really good at this," Tenten grumbled as she threw aside a dandelion. "Tell me again why I have to help you gather these?"

"Because you said you'd like to contribute something for Temari's wedding, and since Ino and Hinata aren't here yet, it's up to us _friends _to do our best and – "

" – Okay, okay. I get it," Tenten said as she threw her hands in mock surrender. "But if I end up gathering weird weeds instead of flowers, don't blame it on me."

Sakura could only shake her head at the brown-haired girl. Though Tenten was not in her batch, she had more than once wondered if they took the same classes when Tenten was still in the Academy. The weapons master didn't seem to have the faintest idea on flowers. "Hinata will sort them out for us. She's intent on pressing these flowers to use as a decoration for the Nara wedding album."

Tenten could only frown, but before she could complain even more, Ino and Hinata were seen stalking up the hill towards them, talking loudly about something that concerned bunny girls and cake. Tenten sighed in relief and waved at them with both arms. "Over here!"

Sakura was on her knees too and waved at them as well. "Welcome back. How was the mission?"

Hinata daintily tucked her legs under her the moment she reached them and smiled happily. "We've successfully delivered the provisions to the shelters. Sai and the others are getting debriefed of the mission by the Hokage and they told us we can go on ahead and help with the preparations for the wedding arrangements."

Ino collapsed in front of them, sending blades of grass flying everywhere. She started digging in the basket of flowers Sakura had and plucked an offending dandelion from the batch. "Dandelions are _weeds_. Who put this in here?" she demanded as she shook the weed violently before dropping it on the ground.

Tenten took a sudden interest on the cloudless sky above them.

Ino gave her a nasty look and was about to say something when Neji suddenly appeared a distance away from behind a tree, arms crossed over his chest, those cold eyes roaming the field. Those eyes stopped the moment they found the girls sitting on the grass.

Hinata's face colored and she gave her cousin a faint wave. Neji, in return, nodded at her slightly, but Sakura didn't miss the slight smile that tugged on the older Hyuuga's lips. The smile, however, vanished when those pearly white eyes landed on Tenten.

Tenten raised an eyebrow at him, shook her head briskly.

Neji jerked his head back.

Tenten blushed.

The suspicious exchange did not go unnoticed from Ino's sharp and very observant eyes, which by that time had narrowed snidely at Tenten. "You two aren't … _together_, are you?"

Hinata blinked.

Sakura's eyes widened at Tenten, did a double-take at the Hyuuga who was still staring at them a few hundred feet away, then blanched. Tenten? _Dating Neji_? It was like… dating… Gaara… minus the sand….

Tenten, much to Sakura's wonder, shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "No."

Ino leaned back on her elbows as she looked over her shoulder at Neji. Sometimes, Sakura thought Ino could read minds without even using her jutsu. This was, perhaps, a good thing for her career as an Interrogations Specialist. "So is it just me, or is he acting like an impatient boyfriend over there?"

Tenten laughed as she got up, brushed her bottom and smiled down at Ino. "Neji is always impatient with me and Lee." And with that, she ran off to meet with Neji, who tapped her roughly on the shoulder. Tenten countered with a punch, but Neji caught it with his hand, where it lingered for a second too long before they let go and started to walk off towards the direction of the training grounds. They were not holding hands, but the way their shoulders brushed against each other nagged at Sakura's imagination to no end.

"They're dating, yes?" Hinata asked timidly. Like Sakura, she too was looking after them until they disappeared over the hill.

Ino shrugged her shoulders lightly then fell flat on her back on the grass. "She likes him, and he finds her presence comforting. But aside from that, there's nothing going on."

Sakura looked at her doubtfully. "Is there such a thing?"

Ino pointed at Hinata. "It's not too different from Naruto and Hinata before they started dating. Naruto finds Hinata a comforting constant, and Hinata was content on basking in Naruto's presence. The only difference is that Neji and Tenten aren't that obvious with it."

Hinata's face once again started to color. "It's different w-with Na-na-naruto!"

"What's different with Naruto?" Naruto asked as he suddenly appeared out of nowhere right behind Hinata, his arms already slithering around the Hyuuga's waist and rubbing his cheek against hers like a contented cat.

Hinata's face turned from pink to red. Naruto had always been generous with physical displays of affection, and Hinata had sort of – _sort of_ – gotten used to it, but the heiress would still sometimes end up getting a bit overwhelmed.

Sakura bit her lower lip. Ever since Sasuke's escape, Naruto had been especially clingy to his girlfriend. And Sakura now knew the reason why.

"I'm stealing Hinata away for a few hours, if that's all right with you," Naruto said, squeezing Hinata's shoulders lovingly.

Ino, who was also used to all of this too, yawned and waved them away. "Shoo. Have fun and do what you always do." Ino rolled onto her belly and smiled slyly. "Don't overwhelm her too much, Naruto."

Naruto gave Ino his trademark fox grin, and before Hinata could even say a word, the two had disappeared in a whirl of smoke and leaves.

Ino yawned again. "Ah, young love…"

Sakura stared at the blonde like she had sprouted horns. "You make it sound like… you're a forty year old lady who missed getting married."

Ino grinned at her, looking so much like Naruto's foxy grin. "That's from someone who's made up with her boyfriend and is telling me this to make me feel bad that I don't have a man of my own?"

Sakura smiled ruefully at her and poked Ino's cheek, making the girl roll away a few times from her in case she poked her again. Sakura pulled her knees up to her chest and said, "I'm jealous of you."

Ino raised one eyebrow at her as she propped her head on her hand. "Eh?"

"Ever since we were children, I had always been jealous of you." Sakura laughed weakly. "Would it sound weird if I told you I get jealous when Sai spends time with you?"

Ino stared at her a full minute before scratching her head. "Sakura, when we were kids, we broke off our friendship because of a guy. Because of Sasuke. When we look back at it, was it ever even worth it?"

Sakura blinked, and she found herself lying on the grass parallel to Ino. "That bastard."

"Yeah. That bastard," Ino reiterated, falling back on the grass.

And they were silent.

Sakura watched the blue sky above them. It was annoying that there wasn't even a single cloud for her to watch. "I… love Sai. Making that big mistake made me realize just how much I love him. And I was just wondering… if – "

"I probed his mind," Ino interrupted her silently.

Sakura closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening it again. "Why?"

"Because he was being an idiot."

"All men are idiots."

"Only when they're in love." Ino rolled towards her and ended up bumping her shoulders with Sakura's. "That guy's head contains nothing else but you. You have no reason to be jealous." She nudged her. "Haven't we had enough fights over guys?"

"We're not fighting."

"We could end up fighting about it."

"Over Sai? I doubt that, Sakura." Ino laughed.

Sakura laughed with her. And they laughed until their stomach hurt, until there were tears pouring out of their eyes, and until they couldn't laugh anymore. After a few minutes they found themselves silently lying side by side, staring at a cloudless sky and holding each other's hand.

Ino sat up when they heard someone's footsteps coming towards them. "Your man's here," she said, giving Sakura a small nudge.

Sakura merely grunted as she looked over her bangs. Sai walking upside down towards them made her heart beat fast.

Ino waved at Sai. "Hello! How did the debriefing go?"

Sai waved back at Ino. "Long, and boring. What are you two doing, lying on the grass?"

Ino was up on her feet, brushing her skirt and giving Sai a stiff salute. "We were talking about lewd things that Sakura wants to do to you when you get home. Everything starts with getting you out of your clothes."

Sakura nearly choked on her own spit when she scrambled to her feet. _"Ino!"_

Sai blinked. "My clothes?"

Ino hastily grabbed the basket full of flowers and was running up the hill before Sakura was able to grab her. "I'll see you two lovebirds around!" And she vanished over the hill, skipping happily.

Sai looked after her, totally confused. He turned to Sakura. "Did she mean you had wanted to undress me?" he asked seriously.

Sakura nearly fainted. She rubbed her arm self-consciously. "That wasn't what we were talking about… "

Sai tilted his head to the right. "You don't want to undress me?"

Sakura wanted the ground to open up and swallow her alive. "It's not that!"

"So you want me to undress?"

Sakura had her hand on her forehead, feeling slightly sick. "Yes…?" she said feebly.

Sai paused, blinked, then after a while, started to unzip his top. "All right…" he said, confused.

"Not here!" She screamed as she lunged at Sai's hands. The conversation was starting to get out of hand. She decided to change the subject. "We should go home. You're attending the bachelor's party in Otafuku Gai, right?"

Sai stared down at her, still looking confused, but squeezed her fingers gently nonetheless. "The mere concept of it disturbs me. Can I not to go instead?"

It was Sakura's turn to look confused. "Why?"

"Aren't strippers scary? I borrowed a book from Kakashi-sensei where there were strippers involved, and they jump out of cakes dressed as rabbits, and they take all your money. I don't think I'd want them to take all my money."

Sakura stared at him unblinkingly. After a moment, she burst out laughing. "Oh, god. Is that all? You don't have to worry about them. They would be too busy with the groom-to-be that they would hardly notice you!" She doubted it, though. Sai was too good-looking to be ignored by women.

In the midst of her laughter, Sai's arms were suddenly around her, and the next second he had pinned her against a tree. Fast bastard. She gasped when he roughly pressed his body against hers. "I'd rather have you undress me," he whispered against her ear, making her shiver.

Sakura let out a yelp, her eyes shifting to make sure no one was looking at them. Fortunately for her, the fields were empty, because Sai's hand had started taking an interest on a sensitive spot in her inner thigh. She wondered what on earth had taken over him, when for the past week he had been more than distant and shared nothing with her but a few pecks.

"S-sai! Not here! What's gotten into you?" she demanded, but nonetheless not making a move to stop him when he started to abuse her neck. He seemed to have a fetish with necking.

His lips trailed from her neck to her ear. "Because I love you for what I am, when I'm with you," he whispered. "I wouldn't have much to offer, not a past, not a name. But I was kind of hoping you'd like to share the future with me, as you're sharing your present with me now."

Sakura's eyes widened. "I'd love to share the future with you, Sai." That wasn't a proposal, was it? As Sai started to trail more wet kisses down her neck to her shoulder, she closed her eyes and sighed. Knowing Sai, it couldn't possibly be a proposal.

"I don't know your size, so I was hoping you'd like to get the ring together. After Temari and Shikamaru's wedding?"

Sakura went rigid. _"EH?"_

Sai pulled back from her, smiled that creepy smile that never really reached his eyes. "Let's go home so you could undress me." And with that familiar hand sign, they were gone so fast in a poof of smoke that Sakura couldn't even react.

* * *

_**A/N: I was aiming for more fluff, but decided to leave it all out for the last chapter. Sai and Sakura are so fun to write about. XD**_

_**One more chapter to goooooooooo!**_


	25. Chapter 25: Happiness

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden._**

* * *

The first thing that hit him when he awoke was the heat, then the overly bright light. Sai groaned as he threw his arm over his eyes at an attempt to both wipe the perspiration from his brow and shield himself from the blinding rays of the orange sun streaming through the half-drawn lace curtains of the window located somewhere to his right.

The next thing that started to bother him was the – thing – heavily weighing down on his torso.

He whipped his arm away, tried to peer through his eyelids with pupils unfocused with sleep –

– and blinked when he saw Sakura's piercing green eyes staring down at him, her head resting on her chest and her fingers playing with his nipples. After a while of utter confusion, he soon realized Sakura was on top of him, straddling him, with bare legs and nothing else covering her upper body but a very thin yellow tank top. Her skin was slightly moist of sweat, her shoulders sun-kissed and glowing from the light coming from somewhere above her.

"Good morning," she murmured, her eyes grazing his sweat-beaded face lovingly.

Sai's cheeks grew hot, and it had nothing to do with the temperature of the room. Sakura always did enjoy waking him up by practically seducing him out of dreamland, but he did not expect she would still be doing it, even in a foreign room, in a foreign Village.

It was the day of Shikamaru and Temari's wedding. While Sakura came with the other Leaf Nin a week ago to the Sand to help with the preparations of the wedding, Sai, due to a delayed mission in the Grass, had just come in last night with Naruto and Yamato. Gaara had prepared a room for them immediately the moment they had arrived.

But what surprised Sai that morning was that when he had retired for the night, it was Naruto who he was sharing quarters with, and the blonde had been occupying the bed at the other side of the room when he finally fell asleep.

"What's going on?" Sai asked groggily as Sakura started drawing lazy circles on his shoulders. "Where's Naruto?"

"He asked me to change rooms with him."

"Eh?"

"He wanted to be alone with Hinata."

"I… find that hard to believe."

Sakura frowned. "Alright. I was the one who asked him to swap rooms." She ran her palms over his chest and shoulders sensuously.

Sai felt the hundred thousand sensations Sakura always caused him to feel erupt from the middle of his stomach and he squirmed from under her, placing his hands on her hips to navigate her away from… that place where she _shouldn't _be sitting, especially this early in the morning.

Unfortunately, Sakura wouldn't budge. She clamped her legs around him tighter still, and she dug her nails into his hair.

"What time is it?" Sai asked her when she wouldn't leg go.

"It's early," Sakura whispered, bringing her face down and nuzzling his neck, inhaling his scent. Sai doubted he smelled any better than a clammy pig, but Sakura didn't seem to mind. In fact, she had started to nip at his throat, as if tasting his saltiness. Her hands released his hair and rested on his shoulders.

"The wedding…!" Sai gasped right before Sakura planted her lips on his.

"It's early," Sakura muttered again in between kisses.

And Sai had to hold back the laughter when Sakura's fingers started to trail under his arms. He could say he was already used to Sakura being adorably demanding in bed as of late, but then he would be lying if he did. There were times when he would be somehow overwhelmed, and more often than not, confused at what to do, as he did not know if this was normal or not.

This did not mean, however, that he did not enjoy every single minute of her advances, and he sometimes wondered if it was okay to be taking liberties on her body this way, especially since he wasn't... properly equipped at the moment. Did he bring condoms for Shikamaru and Temari's wedding? No. Of course not.

He felt this was not his fault. _Definitely not his fault._

His eyes – which he did not even realize had closed as he started reciprocating her passionate kisses – popped wide open when he remembered something Tsunade had said to him when he and Sakura started dating.

_"If you get my apprentice impregnated before marrying her, I will personally cut off your penis and nail it to your forehead. Clear?"_

Sai blinked several times as he watched Sakura start to make her way down his body in a shower of open-mouthed kisses.

Sai grabbed her shoulder and she looked up, bewildered. "Are you ovulating?"

Sakura blinked weirdly, stared at him from a moment before asking, _"What?"_

"Are you ovulating?"

Sakura sat up, red in the face. "I don't usually keep track – "

"You should," Sai said as he pushed himself up on his elbows, facing her. He tried to ignore the building tension right where Sakura sat. He wished she would get off him… or at least shift a little. "Your master wouldn't be too happy with me if I got you pregnant before we get married."

This made her stare even more. "What on earth are you talking about?"

Sai nodded with a serious face. "Tsunade said that if I get you impregnated before we get married, she would cut off my penis and nail it to my forehead. I don't think you would appreciate me much without a penis, and I don't think it would be pleasant to have it cut off…" he trailed off when Sakura started laughing like crazy.

"I'm serious," Sai said, a bit hurt that Sakura was laughing at his expense. "I bet it would be really painful, too."

This caused Sakura to crawl off him and collapsed on her side, chuckling hard. "Oh, Sai!"

"Not only that, but she threatened to nail it on my forehead. That's what you'd call _'adding insult to injury'_, right?"

There were now tears in Sakura's eyes and she was holding her stomach from guffawing too much. "Insult to injury…! Oh, God!"

Sai had to grimace. He did not like the feeling of being laughed at. He had read in a book that being laughed at wounded one's pride. He supposed it wouldn't be enjoyable to have his pride wounded, though he doubted he would have recognized the emotion if it ever happened to him. Grabbing Sakura's upper arm roughly, he flipped her over and pressed her down on the bed. She gasped in surprise.

"Are you ovulating?" he repeated patiently as he pinned both her wrists above her head with one hand, then used his other free one to tug at her tank top.

Sakura giggled a little, a lock of limp pink hair caught between her lips and she tried her best to spit it out. "I could be," she said with a straight face, though she was batting her eyelashes alluringly.

Sai squinted at her. "If we have sex now, what are the possibilities you could get pregnant?"

"That would depend…" She trailed off, blushing.

"On my performance?"

"On luck, I guess," she corrected.

Sai let her wrists go and they both sat up looking at each other, unsure of what to do next.

This was probably the closest thing they had ever come to discussing their future. Two weeks ago, Sai had asked her if she would like to spend her future with him. She had said yes, but seemed quite surprised when he brought up the prospect of rings. Weren't people required to wear rings as a symbol of their love and faithfulness to each other?

The past two weeks had been a blur of the both of them, with Ino lugging Sakura around to help her with the flowers and the decorations, and Sai away on missions, trying to make up for the loss of nin headcount because of the upcoming wedding. Now that he looked back at it, after his proposal, he wasn't able to ask Sakura at all about what she thought of the marriage thing.

And every time they _did_ get together, Sai would be too busy being – _'sexually honored'_ – by Sakura to even talk about anything.

"You would like to get married, right?" Sai asked uncertainly. "Not just… live together and have sex all the time?"

The question made Sakura blush and laugh more. "Sex is always a good bonus," she said jokingly.

Sai kept a straight face. "You seemed surprised when I asked you."

"I wasn't. I answered you straight away when you asked me if I wanted to spend my future with you."

"But when I brought up purchasing wedding rings… you… hesitated," Sai said tentatively. He knew he was being difficult. A part of him thought that her hesitation could have been brought about by the way he had asked such a vague question.

Sakura ran a hand through her damp hair, and Sai let his eyes wander down her body. His blood started to heat up with just the sight of her tightly muscled legs tangled in his sheets, on his bed. "I didn't realize it was a proposal," she muttered, somewhat a bit fazed.

Sai swallowed hard as he felt his hand move through the sweat-sodden sheets and found her knee. "What did you think it was?" His hand made its way up her leg, making Sakura shudder.

"I… don't know. I just… thought it was a simple question. And… ohhh…" Sakura involuntarily closed her eyes as Sai's hand slipped under her tank top. It was joined by his other hand no sooner, and he was thumbing the curve of her waist.

"I'm insulted," Sai whispered as his grip tightened on her waist and without warning, pulled her to him. She ended up straddling his hips, her arms automatically around his neck.

"I'm sorry," Sakura said as she planted a kiss on the corner of his mouth.

It was Sai's turn to shiver. He tugged at her top. "This doesn't look good on you. It makes you look fat."

While two years ago, Sai would have earned him several punches for that comment, Sakura actually giggled throatily as she arched her back and pulled the thin piece of clothing over her head, baring her supple breasts to him.

Now, what was so mysterious about the female anatomy was that no man could ever get tired of looking at it.

"That's so much better," Sai said appreciatively as he let his eyes roam down her beautiful body before exploring her throat with his mouth.

"Not fat?"

"Very sexy." Sai gave her shoulder a kiss before raising his face to hers, planting his forehead against hers. "It was wrong of me to ask questions about your eagerness on our future. It was my fault to begin with, for having asked something so obscure."

Sakura flicked his nose, but this time Sai did not pull away. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and asked, "Sakura, I've said it before, that you would probably be getting the raw end of the deal here, because there isn't anything I could offer you that any other man couldn't do better. There isn't anything from the past that I could tell you, and it's not like I've grown up with you like Naruto, or Hinata, or Sasuke – "

"Shut up," Sakura said fiercely as she placed a finger on his lips. "What matters is _now_. It's always what really mattered. I've been blind about so many things until now, and I've finally opened my eyes, thanks to you. Can't we leave it at that?"

Sai kissed her finger, then her nose. "Definitely not."

Sakura looked at him reproachfully. "Why not?"

Naughtily, Sai ran his palms down her naked, sweaty back, clamped his hands on her backside and rolled his hips against hers. She gasped at the sudden contact. "Because I need to properly say this, so don't interrupt me." He brushed a lock of pink hair from her forehead, tucking it behind an ear. "Marry me."

Sakura stared at him as if he were blabbering nonsense. It made Sai insecure and for a minute wished he had at least asked Shikamaru how he had proposed to Temari. He should have done a bit more research on the subject. But then again, when he slept last night, he wasn't expecting to have Sakura on top of him to seduce him awake this morning.

Sai saw Sakura's mouth open and close faintly, and then she nodded, "Yes…" she said silently, the corner of her lips twitching up.

Sai felt his heart leap and he grinned crookedly, somewhat breathless. "I'm happy."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at him. "You know what happiness is? I didn't think you'd be capable of feeling such a complex emotion at such a quick time."

Sai nuzzled his face against her neck, inhaling that familiar scent of hers. "Happiness… is you."

Sakura nodded. "It's you…"

And everything would have been utterly perfect, if Rock Lee had not decided to ruin the moment by knocking on his door.

"Naruto! Sai! Now is not the time to spend our youth indoors when the sun is shining brightly outside and the desert is a smoldering forty degrees!" came Lee's loud, boisterous voice.

Sai's head shot up in panic and was barely able to react when Lee suddenly kicked the door open.

Sakura let out a strangled squeak when Sai suddenly had her pressed against him, and in a flurry of sheets had her sheltered from Lee's suddenly very, very huge eyes.

Sai did not know what kind of emotion had taken over him when he saw Lee's round eyes trail down to the only exposed patch of skin Sakura had – her feet – and the _Taijutsu_ master's face instantly blazed a fiery red.

"Get. Out," Sai said between gritted teeth as he smiled stiffly at Lee, who had to take a step back at Sai's voice. The guy had nearly seen Sakura – _his _Sakura! – naked! And although the boy now had let his eyes wander somewhere else, Sai very nearly pounced at him and kicked him out the room.

"I-I'm sorry for intruding! I had thought it was Naruto and Sai's room… I promise on my honor that it is not ill-willed. I just came here to deliver a message from Gaara and – "

"What's the message?" Sai interrupted mildly, tucking Sakura's feet under the sheets. Sakura eyed him oddly, a small bewildered smile playing at her lips.

"Gaara said that… uhm… Shikamaru's an hour late for the final dressing and if we can't find him, the wedding might get postponed again. So… uhh… Kiba's on the case, but I can't find Hinata anywhere, and Neji isn't here yet, so Ino asked me to find you…"

Sai nearly snarled when he saw Lee's eyes stray again on Sakura's fidgeting form before he caught himself, stepped out of the room in a hurry and slammed the door behind him.

"Gaara's not worried, because there's still time. But it would be faster if we have you out there looking," came Lee's muffled voice from behind the door. Then came the sound of footsteps hurrying away.

Sai finally let Sakura go, who instantly groped around the bed for her tank top and pulled it over her head.

"What time is it?" Sai asked his initial question earlier as he too started to reach for his clothes neatly folded on the chair by his bed.

"Seven in the morning," Sakura answered soberly, picking up her shorts carelessly littering Sai's floor. "I'm sorry for doing this," she apologized silently, somewhat a bit embarrassed. "I should have known better than take liberties like this when we're away from the village."

"What are you saying?" Sai asked, discarding his clothes again and turning to Sakura, touching her shoulder from behind.

Sakura laughed mirthlessly. "I'm starting to believe that I won't go a day without being near you, and I think that's making me appear… selfish." She looked over her shoulder at him, a little unsure. "Am I being a nag? Or do you think I'm becoming too clingy?"

Sai tilted his head to the right, as he always did when introduced to words he hadn't really gotten quite acquainted to yet. "Are those… bad traits?"

"They are… _selfish _traits," Sakura corrected. "Childlike and immature that usually come out when you want something so bad and you demand it be yours so you 'nag' and you 'cling'."

Sai thought it over a bit, paused then said, "It defines you. You know what you want and you know how to get it." He scratched his head. "Sometimes you take it by force, and I of all people know how it hurts when you do. Even when you mean well."

Sakura stared at him dryly. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Actually, I'm the one who's flattered," Sai said as he gave Sakura a final reassuring hug before pulling on his pants. "Being wanted by someone to the point of selfishness is a first for me. But it's not as if I don't know the feeling."

"Hn?"

"I don't want anyone else seeing you… erm… naked. Except for me. Your body is for my eyes only." He paused again, turned to her questioningly. "Does that make me selfish? Because I don't like other men looking at you, really. I can't explain it. It's like there's this strong urge to hurt them, like earlier when Lee started ogling you."

Sakura laughed a little as she slipped on her vest and skirt then stood up from the bed.

Sai pulled her to him, positioning her between his knees. "Don't laugh. I'm serious."

Sakura rested her hands on his shoulders, squeezing gently. "Repeat after me: I'm yours."

"What – ?"

"Just repeat what I say: I'm yours."

Sai allowed himself to give her a confused smile. "I'm yours."

"You're mine."

"You're… mine…"

"I love you."

Sai paused, felt his mouth curl up at the corners and he pulled Sakura to him, resting his head on her abdomen. "I love you." He nuzzled his cheek against her firm stomach lightly. "So very much."

He felt Sakura play with his hair gently. "You don't have to worry about other men. They can only look but they can never have."

Sai supposed this was the problem most men would have when their girlfriends were irresistible. "I guess it isn't your fault for being beautiful."

Sakura pulled at his hair lightly, making him look up to see her eyebrows rise skeptically. "And to think you used to call me ugly."

Sai chewed on his lower lip seriously. "The book I read about the female mind said that girls usually wouldn't want to hear what guys normally think, and so I opted for a nickname that's the exact opposite of what I thought of you then," he explained, making Sakura blush. "I had never thought of you as ugly. You were always beautiful in my eyes."

Sakura took five seconds to eye him before pinching him on both cheeks and pulling at his face. "Is that an honest assessment?"

Sai took her wrists and pulled her hands away from his face. He had already known Sakura's personality: She was never good at taking compliments, and she always tried to cover her happy embarrassment with hypocritical violence. It was quite hard to deal with, because while books had encouraged showering the girl you like with compliments, Sakura seemed keen to shrug it off, especially when he meant it.

"It's not an assessment. It's a fact." He kissed her hands. "But I'll tell you about it later. After we find the groom."

Sakura nodded, but the way her face was pleasantly flushed made Sai know that though Sakura brushed away his compliments, at least she looked like she believed him. "I'll see you later, then."

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Sai found Shikamaru lying on his back on top of the tallest plateau in the outskirts of the village, a cigarette right at home between his teeth. He had his arms thrown back over his head and he was staring at the cloudy sky. Sai dropped down from his Ink Summons and dismissed it quickly, but Shikamaru didn't even look up when Sai approached.

"You aren't dressed yet," Sai pointed out as he crouched down by Shikamaru's side and tried to mimic him by watching the sky. He was surprised to discover that the heat down the village did not exist on higher land and the wind blowing from the North made it a perfect place to do exactly what Shikamaru was doing, which was practically nothing at all.

Shikamaru, who as always seemed to have all the time in the world, took a huff of his cigarette, plucked it out of his mouth and exhaled contentedly. "The wedding's four and a half hours away. They had wanted me dressed an hour ago. Have you seen the matrimonial robes they asked me to wear? It weighs a ton. You expect me to waddle around in this heat around the village until noon in _that_? I don't think so."

Sai had to pause at this. Before he had set off in search for Shikamaru, Yamato had briefed him on why he had to get stuffed into his wedding robes this early, and that was because of the Sand Tradition of having to kiss the hand of every single woman in the village who was of marrying age. It was supposed to symbolize gratitude for the trust they had bestowed on the groom to protect and love the bride with all his power. Sai, though he really didn't have anything against tradition, thought it to be quite a tedious feat. Shikamaru, who had always disliked women in general, probably knew of this and had decided to run away from the task.

"It seems like you have to follow the order of things in the Sand. Gaara is starting to get quite impatient. He said there is a total of nine hundred fifty-three women of marrying age currently in the village, and you have to pay your respects before the wedding at noon."

Shikamaru sat up and crushed the cigarette on the ground. "I knew we should have arranged the wedding in Konoha instead. At least there, we don't have to kiss hands of women we don't even know."

Sai looked at him side-ways, the conversation suddenly catching his attention. He had never really attended a wedding in the Leaf before, and did not really know if Konoha, like the Sand, had weird traditions that he had to know about. "It was you who decided to hold the wedding here," he pointed out.

"Because it is tradition in the Leaf for the parents of the bride to walk their daughter to the aisle and formally _'give'_ her away to her new household." Shikamaru rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Temari's parents are dead, and so I thought it prudent not to arouse too many bad memories on what's supposed to be a happy day."

Sai raised his eyebrows at him. Shikamaru had never really struck him to be sensitive to those tiny matters. "That's nice of you."

"Melancholy is always troublesome to deal with. It's always easier to coexist with Temari when she's happy."

"She wouldn't be happy if you arrive late for your wedding because you opted cloud-watching over her village's tradition."

"I've already planned out a route through the village that would get me in contact with the women and kiss all their hands and finish in an hour."

Trust Shikamaru to make a plan for everything. "You only get married once. It would be nice if you left a bit of time allowance in your plan."

Shikamaru fell back on the ground tucking his arms behind his head. "My plan already _has _allowances. I said _all their hands_. Tradition demands only one hand for each woman to be kissed. I have all the time in the world."

Sai groaned inwardly. "That's beside the point. You _do _know you're being slightly unreasonable with this?"

"Busy-bodies are unreasonable. Kages are unreasonable. Women in general are unreasonable. I, on the other hand, am _listening _to reason. Who in their right mind would want to get dressed hours too early for their wedding and risk getting soaked in sweat and look like a smoldering pig on what is supposed to be the happiest day of their lives?"

Sai's brow furrowed. Perhaps he should have brought someone who was more skilled in negotiations that he was. He was never really good at this. For a mere second he even considered jumping Shikamaru and taking him back to Gaara by force. But then that would involve having to fight him. And god knew Sai didn't want to risk damaging his face or he knew that he would have to face the wrath of Temari. "The Kazekage asked me to bring you back. Everyone is looking for you," he said desperately.

And as if on cue, a gigantic hand appeared over the plateau drop and it instantly trapped the started Shikamaru between his fingers.

The arm followed the hand, and in a minute, Chouji's other normal sized hand followed, and his head popped into view. At the sight of Shikamaru, his pudgy face broke into a satisfied smile. "Gotcha!"

Sai watched as Chouji crawled into the flat clearing, still holding onto a very stoic Shikamaru.

"You don't have to hold me down, Chouji. I'm not running away," Shikamaru said.

Chouji, in an instant, looked unsure. He looked over his shoulder when Ino suddenly crawled up onto the plateau, dressed in lacy robes of green. She would have looked pretty, if it weren't for the nasty scowl she was wearing on her sweaty face.

"What on earth are you thinking?" Ino demanded as she clumsily waddled her way to Shikamaru, who was now horror struck at seeing Ino there.

Ino's dress was obviously getting in her way and her normally intimidating glare did not have its normal impact, but she was still quite scary as she kicked and clawed at her dress to reach her teammate.

Shikamaru sighed. "Can't you cut me some slack, even for just today? It's my last day of being single."

Sai pursed his lips at Shikamaru's futile pleas.

Chouji gave Ino an uncertain look. "I should just let him go, Ino. I don't think I want to remember Shika-bear's wedding day like this."

"Don't call me Shika-bear."

Ino crossed her arms over her chest, observing Shikamaru for a minute, then nodded. "All right. You can let him go."

Chouji did so gratefully and he withdrew his gigantic hand, which had returned to its normal size the moment he released Shikamaru.

Shikamaru then dropped on his butt and fished a cigarette from his pocket. Ino quickly snatched it away. Shikamaru rolled his eyes, as if this always happened, and got out another cigarette and placed it between his teeth. "You know I'm lazy and I get bored easily, but you know I would never run away from responsibility, however troublesome it may be."

Ino crouched down beside him, hugging her knees to her chest. "Shikamaru, we're not accusing you of running away. We were just worried you… well… " She looked over her shoulder at Chouji for help.

Chouji shrugged his broad shoulders casually. "Ah, we thought it was cold feet."

Shikamaru's eyes widened in incredulity. "Cold feet? Why would I get cold feet?"

Ino shifted uncomfortably. "Well, it is a big step… getting married and all. And we've known you since we were kids. You were never really eager to face change… "

Shikamaru eyed her curiously, his hand paused in mid-strike of his lighter. "I would never do that to Temari. You know me better than that."

This made Ino smile deplorably. "I know how you love her. We didn't mean to question that. I guess we were just – "

Her explanation was cut off instantly when Shikamaru suddenly pulled her to him in a tight embrace. Ino's arms were instantly around the man's shoulders.

"I apologize for having to worry you all the time, Ino. You were always the level-headed in the team, and I could just imagine the responsibility Asuma placed on your shoulders before he left us. He shouldn't have done that." Shikamaru let the cigarette drop to the ground as he stroked the back of Ino's head gently.

Sai tried to look away, as if the events unfolding before him were something only Team Ten should be seeing. But he could not help but watch, thinking that this was what 'bonds' really meant.

Ino laughed tearfully, and she dashed at her eyes, as if afraid to show weakness. "Asuma-sensei made me swear too many promises I couldn't keep. I couldn't beat Sakura at anything, and I couldn't keep you and Chouji out of trouble even if I tried."

Chouji's face was now crumpled in effort not to cry. His big hands were clenched into fists and he was trying hard to smile. "Asuma-sensei would have been proud of you, Ino. And he would have been happy to know Shikamaru's getting married. Maybe… I should really make an effort to diet more, so I can make him proud of me, too."

Shikamaru gave Ino one final squeeze before letting her go, then he gave Chouji a sharp salute and smiled. "He would have been proud of you either way, Chouji."

Ino wiped at her eyes again and faked a frown. "I can't believe you're really getting married!"

Shikamaru shrugged. "Neither can I."

Chouji joined his teammates on the ground "Are you nervous?"

"I'm nervous."

"But you're happy?" Ino asked.

Shikamaru grinned shyly, running his thumb over his nose self-consciously. "I'm damn happy."

Ino watched him before once again throwing her arms around him tightly. "Then that's all that matters."

"God, you make it sound like we're never going to see each other again. You _are _aware that Temari and I will be living in Konoha, aren't you?"

"But it'll be different! Your priorities will change!" Ino insisted.

Chouji nodded. "And you'll even be too preoccupied especially when you have kids!"

Sai blanched.

Shikamaru nibbled on his lower lip, thought for a moment, then smiled. "Yeah. Having kids would be nice. A girl, then a boy. Yeah, two would be just fine."

Momentarily distracted, Sai wondered what it would feel like to be a father, and what Sakura would be like as a mother. He had to smile at the thought. Sakura was naturally nurturing. Aside from the healing, Sai supposed she would be a great mom. He also supposed he would suck as a dad. Shaking himself out of his reverie, his attention was back on Team Ten, where Shikamaru had gotten up to his feet and was now dusting himself down.

"Fine. I'll get dressed and kiss the freaking hands of the freaking women of the freaking village. But don't blame me if Hinata's plan of making a memorable photo album of the wedding turn into a disaster with me looking like a haggard monster by noon."

Ino grinned toothily as she gathered her lacy robes above her knees. "Don't be such a baby. Look at me. They already stuffed me in _this_, and you don't see me complaining."

Shikamaru, as if noticing for the first time that Ino was wearing something other than her revealing skirts and tops, frowned and asked. "Is that part of tradition too?"

"Apparently so. The women in the life of the groom is entitled to escort the bride to the altar, as a sign of entrusting the groom to his new wife. Or something like that. Hinata, Sakura and Tenten are also getting dressed in these ridiculously lacy robes."

Sai had to blink. It was going to be the first time he would be able to see Sakura in feminine robes. Unrolling a scroll, he summoned an Ink Falcon which sprang to life in front of them. "So, can we go?" he inquired.

Chouji and Ino looked over to him and smiled. "Thanks, Sai. We wouldn't have been able to find him if it weren't for you."

Sai could only tilt his head to the right as he watched Team Ten embark his Falcon, and wondered to himself if he, like them, had developed such a bond with Naruto and Sakura. The thought of his teammates made him grin silently. It was good to experience bonding with his friends, but after having watched how Ino, Chouji and Shikamaru treat each other as something more than just a member in a team, he realized that they had almost – almost – reminded him of an emotion he had always categorized with his late brother. The same feeling he felt when he was around Naruto.

And as he gave Team Ten another glance, he felt a new emotion that hasn't really crossed him until today.

He felt utterly, utterly touched.

* * *

While Sai had been tempted to search out Sakura in her dress, he had been curious as to how Shikamaru's plan of kissing nine hundred fifty-three women under one hour would work. He then found himself trailing the Nara around the village. His plan was fool-proof, as always. Sai did not know how he did it exactly, but Shikamaru had memorized the nooks and crannies, the back roads and the alleys of the Sand Village, that he was able to seek out every single female of marrying age in forty-seven minutes. After that, he spent the remaining two and a half hours complaining about the heat, the weight of his clothes, the absence of his cigarettes and pretty much everything else he found annoying at that certain time.

Sai eventually got tired listening to him being negative and decided to pursue his curiosity on how his girlfriend would look in robes. Sakura seldom gave herself the courtesy to flaunt her assets in public, and although Sai had earlier told her that he didn't like it when other men looked at her, a part of him still wanted to show her off.

He decided to search for her in the very lively square in front of the newly rebuilt Kazekage Tower, where some sort of event was being held in honor of the very first intermarriage between the Leaf and the Sand. There were little shops that sold candied apples and sweet cactus meat at one corner of the square. The middle of the plaza was allotted for dancing, where in the middle of it sat three men playing strange instruments that looked like round-shaped guitars and lyres Sai had never seen before. Young women in colorful skirts were swaying to the curious rhythm of the two-set drums, skipping their feet and leaping in circles with men in billowy trousers and vests open at the front.

There was no mistaking it. _Everyone _in the Sand was happy of the joining.

Much to Sai's surprise, he bumped into Naruto, who was clad in one of those trousers very similar to what the dancing men wore. What made him look so out of place was his shinobi mesh shirt, on his whiskered cheek a smear of pink lipstick that suspiciously matched the one Hinata was always wearing, and strangely, a pink hair ribbon on one of the spikes that stuck up his head.

"Hello, Naruto," Sai greeted him as the _Jinchuuriki_ turned to him, a weird prickly thing on a stick in his hand. "What are you holding?"

Naruto grinned happily. "A cactus on a stick! Prickly delicious. Want one?"

Sai moved his head away when Naruto almost stabbed him in the eye with his cactus. "Ah, no thank you."

In response to his dismissal, Naruto grabbed him around the neck in a choke hold. "I hope this time around you don't end up giving Temari something that will make her mad at you again," said Naruto, making his hair sway about as he nodded.

Sai stared at the pink ribbon on his head, then gave Naruto a sedated look as he ducked from his hold. Tsunade had assigned Sakura on a mission to train him on his emotions for today's specific occasion. He was not about to put Sakura to shame by being tactless. "I'm trying my best to behave."

"Yeah I can tell. You've been stiff as a board since you arrived yesterday evening."

"I was aiming for formality."

His grin widened. "How was your morning?"

Sai gave him a bland look. "I woke up with Sakura playing with my nipples. And I have you to thank for that. How was Hinata?" His eyes wandered to Naruto's pink ribbon and lipstick-stained cheeks. He wondered if Hinata had anything to do with the hair accessory.

Naruto flushed a deep red, still unused of Sai blurting out uncomfortable truths, and he nodded, then suddenly changed the subject. "I was aiming for formality, too. But no one would take me seriously."

Sai doubted that entirely. Naruto and Sakura were considered as the Village heroes. Kakashi and Team Gai came a close second. No one who didn't know Naruto's name would even try to not take him seriously, with or without the pink ribbon and the cactus on a stick. "It must be your hair…"

Naruto self-consciously fingered his blond locks, missing the ribbon by millimeters. "What's wrong with it?"

"Uhm…" _Tact_. Sai had to remember _tact_. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong with it."

Naruto eyed him suspiciously, but nodded anyway. "All right. If you say so." And he walked away into the merry crowd, muttering about hair gel, foreplay and Hinata.

Sai followed him with his eyes until the cluster of people swallowed him out of sight. Sai didn't know if he did the right thing of sending Naruto away with a very conspicuous pink ribbon stuck in his hair, but he felt slightly good for not saying such an embarrassing thing to his face. Sakura would be proud of him. Patting himself on the back, he set off in his search for Sakura.

Much to his annoyance, he ran into a very drunk Lee in the drink bar next to the candied apple stands.

"You had her naked in your room!" Lee accused him suddenly, making the dancing people pause and look at them for a moment before continuing their business.

Sai, eyes shifting nervously as he backed away from Lee, tried to formulate a means of escape. Before he could even move, Lee had him cornered against the candied apple stand and a potted plant. Lee took his time examining him with half-moon eyes, his mouth in a serious straight line. After a minute or so, he grabbed Sai by the shoulders and… hugged him.

Sai felt a shudder run down his spine.

"You lucky, lucky man! Being able to experience one of the most wonderful feelings in the world!" He started sobbing now. Sai quickly looked around, hoping they weren't getting unnecessary attention. That was too much to hope for. A few young women were looking at them and laughing. "Oh, the wonders of youthful love where the heart tends to overlook flaws like… _social handicap_ and… _outright obnoxiousness_!" Lee's laughs immediately turned into snarls and his arms tightened around Sai, making the artist gasp. "So what if you're good-looking? We do not succeed in this world with looks alone! We succeed with the way we dress! And you dress funny…!"

Sai was genuinely unaware that he was being insulted. And unsure of what to do, he shrugged away from Lee and smiled uncertainly. "All… right…" And he made his escape when Lee had mistaken the potted plant to be Neji and he started talking to it. Sai took this chance to slip through the crowd of people falling in line for a dance with the young women wearing the colorful skirts.

Sai was beginning to doubt he was going to find Sakura in this crowd, but he was surprised when he made his way to the Kazekage tower just in time to see Sakura running out towards him.

Sai's heart started to dance inside his chest at the sight of Sakura in light green robes similar to Ino's. She looked absolutely stunning in green. Perhaps in normal circumstances he would, in his mind, be seeing simulative images of how satisfying it would be to undress her from those layers and layers of lace, but right at the moment, the expression on her face was what made him stop in his tracks.

She looked undeniably annoyed as she made his way to him in a hurry. Sai reached out his hands to her and she immediately took them into hers while saying, "Temari's not in her room. We think she left through the window in her wedding dress because her fan was gone as well."

Sai groaned. This was turning out to be a very, very long day. And to think the wedding was starting in a few minutes. He wondered if it was tradition in the Sand for the bride and the groom to disappear in turns within a few moments before they join in holy matrimony. Sighing in defeat, he planted a kiss on Sakura's forehead. "I'll go look for her."

"Thank you."

Feeling a bit annoyed that he was not even given the opportunity to appreciate how beautiful his girlfriend was that day, he took out his scroll and summoned another Ink Falcon, and flew off in search for the bride.

Of course, in record time, he found Temari. She had chosen a better hiding place than Shikamaru. Approximately three kilometers from the Village was a small oasis with three small springs clustered in the middle of trees Sai did not recognize. On the branch of one of those trees sat Temari. He recognized her because of her fan, and the white dress. But when he landed on the moist sand and dismissed his summons, it was then did he notice that she looked different.

Of course, that could be because he hadn't seen her in a span of three months since they had been thrown in jail cells adjacent to each other after practically devastating the Sand Village and causing great damage to the Kazekage's tower. However, as he looked up at her, he nearly lost footing when he saw she looked absolutely beautiful in her wedding gown that resembled a white kimono with tiny black flowers lining the hem of the sleeves. Her blonde hair, which was usually parted in four pony-tails, was pulled back into a neat bun on top of her head where white roses he had seen with Ino more than once arranged around the bun like a crown.

"Hello there," he greeted tentatively. He did not disregard the fact that this woman had nearly killed him three months ago with the fan that she was holding at that very moment.

What was so surprising was that the expression on her face was of pure shock when she saw him looking up at her.

"You…" she whispered silently. When Sai waved at her, she bit her lip and turned away. "What do you want?"

Sai cleared his throat. He asked himself why on earth he had to go alone in search for this woman. He doubted he would be able to bring her back in time for her wedding without using force. "Lucky Sakura noticed you were gone before your wedding started. If she hadn't then we wouldn't have been able to look for you just in time for the ceremony. Let's go back."

Temari narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't know how you found me, but if you don't want to get hurt, then I suggest you leave. I'd like to be alone."

Sai frowned at her. This just was not right. "I can't do that. I'm sorry."

"And why not?" Temari raised her eyebrows at him, smirking. Sai thought that she looked scary, even when she was all dressed up as a blushing bride.

"Sakura spent a lot of time to train me for this occasion. If you don't show up for your wedding, then her efforts would have been in vain," Sai said, then as if an afterthought, said, "Shikamaru and Gaara would be worried if you didn't show up."

Temari watched him silently, and she leaped down from the branch she was perched on. Sai, out of habit, reached his left hand to his shoulder for his _tanto_ only to discover he did not have it with him. Sai covered his anxiousness with a fake smile. He had been given a lot of opportunities to find Temari and apologize for the wedding gift he had given her that had made her so mad at him, but he never did get the chance to come in contact with her. In fact, after the scene they'd made in the dress rehearsal three months ago, this was the first time he would be able to talk to her.

He cleared his throat again. This was the perfect chance to apologize, he thought. And although he knew he would be risking angering her even more – because he was Sai – he decided it was now or never. He opened his mouth to begin but he was immediately interrupted when Temari asked him the weirdest question anyone has ever asked him in his life.

"How do you feel about children?"

Sai blinked. "Pardon?"

"Kids. Do you like them?"

Sai found himself in an internal battle with himself. He searched for the right emotion to fit with this situation, but all he could find was confusion. "I… don't know. I've never had children before…"

Temari furrowed her brow at him. "But would you like to have some? In the future, I mean?"

Sai, too, furrowed his brow. "In the future? Well, maybe after I get married, yes. I don't think I'd like my penis nailed to my forehead so I have to marry Sakura first before having children."

Temari's face twitched. "Are you mocking me?"

Sai smiled. "No."

The woman looked at him weirdly, then sighed in resignation.

"Why do you ask?"

Her face twitched even more. "Nothing."

Sai frowned. "Does this have anything to do with Shikamaru? You're not…" he recalled what Ino and Chouji had used on Shikamaru earlier. "… _getting cold feet_, are you?"

That made Temari react differently, because this time, she did not furrow her brow, she did not look mad, and she was not frowning. Instead, she was blushing. "Do you think Shikamaru would like to have children?"

"Would you like me to ask him?" Sai asked instantly, as he was willing to make amends with Temari. Perhaps it was not too late to become friends.

Temari was silent for a full minute before turning to him. "About almost killing you before, I apologize."

The sudden change of subject made Sai even more confused, but he decided to go with the flow. "It was my fault. I should have been more sensitive to your feelings. I should have known girls do not like being called fat, even if it's a joke, because girls think that jokes are half-meant."

"I…" Temari muttered. "… have no idea what you're talking about. But it was not your fault. I'm not that vain to go obliterating people because they comment negatively on my looks – "

"I didn't mean to, I swear."

" – but I overreacted because…" Temari paused, the hand lingering on her obi for a moment before letting it fall at her side. "Damn it… Do you think Shikamaru would like children?"

She was back on the topic they had earlier. Sai watched her body language, the way her eyes strayed to her stomach, the way her fingers rubbed at the obi around her waist, the way it was loosely wrapped around her form. Sai's eyes widened in disbelief. "Temari… you're…!"

Temari avoided his gaze. "Three months…"

He was not trained for this. Sakura forgot to train him to react when a girl asks advice if she was unsure of how her future-husband would react if he found out she was pregnant. But even without the training, he knew that perhaps – just this once – telling the truth would be the best solution. He touched her shoulder gently. "He would like two kids. A girl, then a boy."

Temari swiveled her head and stared at him with wide eyes.

Sai smiled. "He's waiting."

* * *

Sakura held back the tears that were threatening to overcome her as she pushed her way through the crowd and waved desperately at Shikamaru and Temari as they descended down the aisle. The ceremony had been wonderful. Ino and Chouji had cried their hearts out all throughout the wedding. Naruto had the time of his life cheering Shikamaru on when it was time to kiss the bride, and Hinata was clapping when Temari appeared to be flustered.

After the couple had received the blessings of the Kazekage and the Hokage, the crowd had broken into chaotic rejoicing and it took everything Sakura had not to get swept away in the sea of people. She was intent on saying goodbye to Shikamaru before the newlyweds ran off to a day of endless partying and probably a night of endless sex. In the corner of her eye she saw Ino, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief as she joined her at waving at the couple.

"Oh, my god! It's over! He really _did _get hitched!" Ino sobbed.

Sakura hugged Ino to her in a one-armed embrace. "They'll be back after their honeymoon."

"I know! But I can't stop crying!" the blonde still continued to cry. She waved frantically when Shikamaru and Temari turned to the crowd.

Sakura laughed as she watched her friend desperately wiping at her eyes with her free hand. "I bet you're just crying in frustration because Shikamaru got married before you."

Ino gave her a watery smile. "That may have something to do with it."

"I knew it." Sakura rolled her eyes as she gave Ino a squeeze. "Don't worry, Ino. It's – "

"Oh, my god. It's coming this way!" Ino suddenly cut her off, and she suddenly started hopping in place, her hands outstretched. No sooner did Sakura realize that the rest of the young women were also imitating her.

Sakura frowned as she looked up to see what was going on, and nearly screamed when a bouquet of thorny white roses hit her on the forehead and landed in her hands. The girls around her, even Ino, groaned in disappointment. Sakura stared at the bouquet angrily. "Temari just threw me a thorny bouquet!"

Ino looked at her in bewilderment. "Isn't that supposed to be a good thing?"

"It's a thorny bouquet."

"It means you're getting married next," Ino pointed out dryly as she eyed the flowers in Sakura's hand, almost wistfully. "Don't you know that Sand tradition?"

Sakura was about to say something rude to her when she felt strong arms wrap around her waist from behind and the familiar scent of charcoal and parchment filled her senses when Sai suddenly pressed his mouth to her ear and whispered, "It's a sign," before leaving a lingering kiss on her cheek.

_**The End**_

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_**A/N: There may be an epilogue for this, if I get enough inspiration but for the meantime, I'll let your imagination do the work. I've even left enough open-ended themes if I ever decide to make a sequel with it, but there's already a new SaiSaku plot brewing in my head that can't wait to get out. **_

_**To everyone who has stuck to this story till the very end, thank you! To those who reviewed, added this to their alerts and favorites, thank you! You guys make me remember the reason why I love fanfiction so much. **_

_**-yuugiri**_


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